POMONA, N.J. (September 22, 2015) – Richard Stockton defeated Rutgers University-Newark, 3-0, Tuesday night in a New Jersey Athletic Conference women's volleyball match.
Rutgers-Newark falls to 7-3 overall and 0-2 in the NJAC, while Stockton improves to 14-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference.
The Scarlet Raiders were led by eight kills from sophomore
Hayley Merrill, with sophomore
Karolina Kopacz and senior
Sharee Gordon each picking up four. Gordon led the Raiders with a trio of blocks, and sophomore setter
Nathalie Breining had 19 assists. Sophomore
Sue Riley and Breining led the team in digs with eight and five, respectively.
R-N hit .032 in the match, totaling 22 kills. Stockton finished with 42 kills and just nine errors, swinging a lofty .379 in the match.
The set scores went to the Ospreys, 25-13, 25-19 and 25-10.
Stockton jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set, with the Raiders fighting within six (10-4) after a kill from junior
Tabitha Davis. That would be as close as the guests would get, eventually falling by the 25-13 margin. Merrill led the Scarlet Raiders with four kills in the opening frame.
Davis and Kopacz helped the Raiders to a strong start in the second, each recording kills as the set was deadlocked at one, two, three, four, five, six and eight before a 5-0 rally from the hosts made it 13-8.
Two-straight points pulled the Scarlet Raiders within three, and a Kopacz kill combined with a Stockton error made it 15-14, but the Ospreys were able to create separation with a 3-0 spurt.
The third set opened with the hosts scoring nine of the first 10 points, and despite a late 4-0 rally from the Scarlet Raiders behind the serve of
Lisamarie Acosta, the hosts cruised.
Merrill (eight), Gordon (six), Kopacz (4.5) and Davis (three) led R-N in points as the Raiders totaled 27 in a match in which 14 players saw action.
Rutgers-Newark will look to get back into the win column when the Raiders visit conference rival New Jersey City University on September 29. R-N will also be looking for its first conference win of the year.
Follow us all season long on twitter – @ScarletRaiders – and Instagram – @RNScarletRaiders!
