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ATTLEBORO - After a long layoff, the Bishop Feehan High girls' volleyball team barely needed to break a sweat Saturday as the Shamrocks steamrolled their way to a first-round win over the overmatched Community Academy of Science & Health (Hyde Park).

Tuesday night was a bit of a different story, but the end results the same.

Behind the stellar front-row play of Amy Lepley and Jackie Atkinson, the Shamrocks punched their ticket to the MIAA Division 2-South Sectional semifinals with a solid, 3-0 victory over Notre Dame Academy of Hingham.

The first two games could have gone either way, with Bishop Feehan winning both by identical 25-21 scores, but the Shamrocks went for the jugular in Game 3 and put the victory in their collective back pockets with a dominating 25-14 decision - a game not nearly as close as the final score.

With the win, the second-seeded Shamrocks (21-1) advance to play sixth-seed Bourne (17-5) Thursday evening (7) at Bishop Feehan. Bourne took care of Case on Tuesday night, 3-0. Notre Dame Academy, the seventh seed, had its seven-game winning streak snapped and checks out at 15-6 overall.

"They had some hitters... but I think we did a pretty good job taking them out of their offense. If they get the ball to their hitters more then it's a lot closer," said Bishop Feehan mentor Joe Reardon. "The first two games were intense and I think they wore both teams down a bit. That really helped us jump on them in the third game, getting a big early lead."

The first two games were indeed intense seat-squirmers. Game 1 featured eight ties and five lead changes while Game 2 was pretty much just as close with six ties and three lead changes. But the Shamrocks asserted themselves at the start of Game 3 and throttled Notre Dame with run after run.

Lysa Sim started Game 3 by sandwiching aces around a Lepley kill. Atkinson chimed in with two more aces during a 5-0 spurt that saw Feehan made it 8-1, prompting a Notre Dame timeout.

The break did little to slow the Shamrocks as they went on to outscore Notre Dame 9-1 with Kerin DeGirolamo and Jess Nolan doing the honors at the service stripe. A Nolan ace ballooned the Feehan lead to 14 points (17-3) and the Shamrocks were never headed from there, maintaining a double-digit cushion the rest of the way. Notre Dame did get within 10 (23-13) at one point, but no one on the visiting side could handle a Morgan Lindberg return, the miss-hit resulting in match point.

Lepley led the Shamrocks with 11 kills and three blocks while Atkinson went for nine kills, two aces and 12 digs. Lepley had a block to clinch Game 1 while a thunderous kill by Atkinson but the exclamation point on Feehan's Game 2 win.

"Those two were outstanding," said Reardon. "They're two of the best."

Notre Dame had a couple of threats at the net as well, what with All-State hitter Kathleen Colpoys and Rebecca Gwaltney in the middle and Molly Burke on the outside. However, that threesome had to struggle for every point and could never sustain any kind of run to put Feehan away in either of the first two games.

Notre Dame opened Game 1 by trading one-point leads with Feehan, up as late as 10-9 and tied at 11-all. However, the visitors could never get more than a two-point lead (3-1 and 9-7) and once Feehan went on top at 12-11 the Shamrocks were never headed.

Behind Atkinson's jump serve and Lepley's work in the front row, Bishop Feehan put together a 6-1 spurt to pull away. Rossi Fish's block in the middle gave Bishop Feehan its biggest lead of the match at 22-16, but Notre Dame made one final push to close within 22-21. Atkinson had back-to-back hits resulting in Feehan points then Lepley towered over Gwaltney for the clinching block, the play drawing a loud ovation from the Feehan student body and a wide grin from Bishop Feehan girls' basketball coach Mike Deady, who had a front-row seat for the proceedings to watch his Lepley - also an Eastern Athletic Conference and Sun Chronicle all-star for her work on the basketball court.

"She's an outstanding basketball player. She just does volleyball for fun for a couple of months, and that's fine with me," beamed Reardon. "She's a six-footer who can touch the rim in basketball. She's such a great athlete and she has such control of her body at the net. Other teams might have six-footers, but they don't have the same kind of finesse as Amy. She's a great player."

Lepley went back and forth with Notre Dame's Colpoys at the outset of Game 2, Notre Dame on top again early, but never by more than two points (3-1 and 7-5). Once Feehan went up 11-10 on an Atkinson kill, the Shamrocks went in front to stay.

A Lepley slam dunk made it a 13-10 game and prompted another ND timeout. Another Shamrock spurt made the lead nine (22-13) and Notre Dame could get no closer than three (24-21) the rest of the way, Reardon using one of his timeouts to set up Atkinson's game-clinching kill.

For Feehan, DeGirolamo ended up with 18 assists, 10 digs and two aces while Sim had two aces and 14 digs. Nolan had three aces and 10 digs.