NEWARK, N.J. (October 10, 2015) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's volleyball team split a pair of matches in the The Golden Dome Arena Saturday, sweeping SUNY Maritime, 3-0, but falling to Baruch College in a five-setter, 3-2. The Scarlet Raiders are now 10-8 overall, while Baruch moves to 11-15 and Maritime drops to 11-9.
R-N defeated Maritime by set scores of 25-14, 25-16 and 25-19, overcoming a 9-1 deficit in the third to get the sweep. The Scarlet Raiders swung a match-best .300 in the first set, hitting .045 overall as freshman
Jess Moy recorded a career-high 11 kills to lead Rutgers-Newark. Junior
Kathy Hormaza (16), senior
Sharee Gordon (13) and freshman
Cassie Luken (12) all recorded double-digit kills in the loss to Baruch, with Gordon tallying seven blocks as well.
Rutgers-Newark 3, Maritime 0
R-N 25, Maritime 14The Scarlet Raiders experienced little resistance in taking the first set, 25-14. The hosts jumped out to an early 4-1 margin behind a kill from Moy and an ace from freshman
Analis Capobianco. Maritime did fight back within one (4-3), but a 3-0 rally from the Scarlet Raiders opened a 7-3 edge, and the Privateers would get no closer than three the rest of the way. The 3-0 rally came via three Maritime errors, with kills from freshman
Andrea Antal, Moy and freshman
Cassie Luken keying a 10-2 spurt that all but closed the set.
Moy, who led the Raiders with six kills in the first, wrapped things up with a pair for points 24 and 25.
R-N 25, Maritime 16The guests would jump out to a quick 4-0 edge, but the lead would be short lived as Rutgers-Newark ran off nine of the set's next 10 points to open a 9-5 lead. Capobianco and sophomore
Sue Riley served during the run, each picking up an ace, and Luken pocketed a kill.
The teams traded points before a 6-0 run quickly turned a 12-8 edge to 18-8. Sophomore
Amber Borowski and Moy put down hammers with Luken earning another ace for R-N.
Down the stretch, freshman
Lisamarie Acosta and Antal scored points and Capobianco brought home one of her three aces.
R-N 25, Maritime 19The Scarlet Raiders struggled at the start of the third and Maritime jumped out to a 9-1 lead. A timeout seemed to slow the visitor momentum and R-N quickly responded with three-straight to trim the lead to five at 9-4.
The Privateers came back with three in a row to match their largest lead of the set (eight), but the Raiders answered by ripping off seven-straight points on the serve of Riley to force a Maritime timeout.
A Privateers error and ace for Riley resulted in R-N's first lead of the set (13-12) and a Hormaza ace and kill from Moy made it 17-15 in favor of the Scarlet Raiders. Sophomore
Sydney Tuman helped R-N to a 23-18 lead thanks to two kills, with a Gordon point and Maritime error closing it out.
Moy hit .333 to record her 11 kills, adding three digs and a block assist to her line. Hormaza finished with four kills and eight digs, with Luken, Antal, Tuman, Gordon and Borowski all picking up multiple kills. Riley led the way with a team-high 16 digs, also recording a team-best five aces. Capobianco had three aces and four digs, and sophomore
Nathalie Breining dished out 14 assists. Freshman
Bryanna Urbaez had eight assists and seven digs, and Luken led the team with three total blocks.
Baruch 3, Rutgers-Newark 2
R-N 25, Baruch 16The Scarlet Raiders raced out to a 4-0 lead behind a kill from Hormaza and a block from Gordon, and turned a 5-5 tie into a 9-5 edge behind three errors and a block from Luken. Moy and Gordon tallied back-to-back kills to help the Scarlet Raiders to a 15-10 lead and three of the next four points forced a Baruch timeout at 18-11.
Out of the break, the guests scored the first point but a block from Gordon and a Bearcat error made it 20-12 in favor of Rutgers-Newark. A combo-block from Moy and Luken helped the Raiders to match their largest lead of the set at nine (24-15), and Luken's fifth kill of the set sent Rutgers-Newark to a 1-0 lead.
Baruch 25, R-N 20Baruch started strong in the second behind Sydney Parks, doubling up the Scarlet Raiders at 4-2 and 6-3, before the teams started to trade points. R-N would eventually pull even with a mini 3-1 rally featuring strong defense and a Hormaza kill to tie the set at 10.
The Bearcats were able to create some separation, opening a 22-17 lead behind Symone Green and Parks, outscoring Rutgers-Newark 15-10 down the stretch to tie the match (1-1).
R-N 25, Baruch 21The two sides traded 3-0 runs to start the third set, with a Gordon kill giving the Raiders their first lead at 6-5. Back-to-back Hormaza kills helped pull the Raiders even once again (10-10), before two kills from sophomore
Sydney Tuman sandwiched around a Baruch error helped the Scarlet Raiders to a 17-14 edge. The lead swelled to four at 19-15 following strong defense and another Luken kill.
A Hormaza kill quieted a brief Bearcat rally and accounted for the 20th R-N point of the set, with an error and another Hormaza kill resulting in a 22-16 lead and a Baruch timeout.
The Bearcats came out of the timeout by scoring 4-of-5 to get within two at 23-21, causing Scarlet Raider coach
Jason Madsen to use a timeout of his own to try and slow some of the building momentum.
That proved to be a smart move as Luken picked up a kill right out of the break to bring the Raiders to set point, and Moy clinched it with her fourth kill of the match.
Baruch 28, R-N 26Baruch doubled up Rutgers-Newark to start, leading 6-3, eventually extending to 11-6 after an R-N attacking error, but the hosts would battle back with a 6-1 run, getting two kills from Gordon and one from Hormaza to tie the score at 12. Back-to-back attacking errors from Baruch helped the Scarlet Raiders to a 16-14 lead, with two more errors and solid defense giving R-N a 19-15 lead and all the momentum.
The Bearcats clawed back within one (20-19), but the Raiders had the answer in the form of Gordon who recorded a thunderous kill and an emphatic block to put Rutgers back up three (22-19).
However, resilient Baruch came back to tie at 23, 24 and 25, and converted its second set point of the set to steal the victory from R-N and force a fifth and final set.
Baruch 15, R-N 10Baruch came out strong in the fifth to take a 6-1 lead and despite Breining and Gordon coming up with key kills to trim the deficit to three, the Bearcats took an 8-3 advantage at the switch.
R-N picked up a quick two tallies via Bearcat error to fight back (8-5), but the guests answered with three of their own to go up by six (11-5) and force an R-N timeout.
The Scarlet Raiders continued to fight, but could not get close enough as the shortened fifth set closed on the Scarlet Raiders.
Rutgers-Newark hit .118 in the match, accumulating 55 kills and 27 errors. Baruch converted at a .086 clip, finishing with 60 kills and 38 errors. Parks had a match-high 17 kills to lead three Bearcats in double figures. Luken and Moy combined for five blocks behind Gordon's seven to pace the Raiders at the net. Gordon hit .225 in registering her 13 kills, adding five digs to a strong line. Riley had 29 digs as did Hormaza who picked up a double-double and Capobianco had 25 as the Raiders accumulated 128 as team, compared to 143 for Baruch. Breining led the way with 24 assists for a double-double as well and Urbaez was close behind with 18.
R-N returns to action Tuesday night when it hosts Montclair State University in a key New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) showdown. Opening serve is set for 7 p.m. in The Golden Dome Arena.
