The film reviews of their April 28 match were bad.

But on Thursday, Emma McSorley and Lauren Watson scripted a much happier ending.

Notre Dame’s sand super stars defeated Xavier’s Holly Matchinsky and Kate MacDonald 21-18, 21-17 in the Division I pairs championship at Casteel, avenging their only loss of their season.

“We studied our film (of April 28 loss) so much, and I think that really helped us,” McSorley said. “It was a for a reason that match didn’t go according to plan.”

That three set disappointment to Matchinsky and MacDonald was part of a 3-2 team loss Notre Dame suffered in the D-I team semifinals.

It was also the first and only time Notre Dame’s No. 1’s dropped a set this season. On Thursday, McSorley and Watson took out their frustrations.

McSorley picked her spots deftly to collect points. When the block was up, the senior regularly went over the blocker and down the line for points.

When she needed to rip a Watson set, she did so. Xavier trailed 11-6 in Game 2, the biggest lead of the match for Notre Dame, but Xavier then tallied five of the next seven points.

Sensing the momentum switching, McSorley didn’t go line with a blocker up. This time she hammered one down, sparking a 5-1 run.

Notre Dame had four aces in the final game.

In the first game, when McSorley and Watson had three of their six serving errors, the teams were knotted at 17-17.

But that’s when McSorley (21 kills) picked the right time to convert her only block in the match for a point. She followed that with a kill off a Watson (20 assists) set.

A Xavier hitting error and Watson kill then ended the game.

Notre Dame (18-1) welcomed the pressure they faced this year as the defending champ.

“That pressure made us want to redeem ourselves even more and fight harder,” Watson said. “We beat everybody in our region until playoffs, but that gave us even more of a spark.”

A couple of years ago, Notre Dame was an unknown commodity in beach.

But coach Jamie Walsh and her players are now collecting the dividends for their hard work. The program reached the team semis for the first time this year, and McSorley and Watson were the first ones to secure beach titles for their school.

Xavier’s Holly Matchinsky and Kate MacDonald“Holly and Kate are both phenomenal players, and Emma and Lauren play against them a lot,” Walsh said. “So I think knowing some of their tendencies but also making adjustments from (April 28) helped. Obviously it wasn’t fun losing in the (team) semifinals. But it was a good match, and tonight sealed the deal for Emma’s high school career, which was really special.”

McSorley’s next stop is Arizona State, where her mom, Leanne, starred before turning pro.

Watson, a junior, isn’t done at Notre Dame.

“This means the world to me,” McSorley said. “The fact that it’s my senior year, and I get to do this with my best friend, it’s everything I wanted it to be. Coming in my freshman year I would have never thought this was possible.”