MORRISTOWN, N.J. (September 26, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's volleyball team won its second match in a row, defeating hosts College of St. Elizabeth in a non-conference showdown 3-1.
The Scarlet Raiders improve to 6-5 on the season while the Eagles drop to 3-11.
Rutgers-Newark won by set scores of 25-17, 23-25, 25-17, and 25-16 while racking up 45 kills for the contest.
In the first set, the visitors broke open a 10-9 game by winning eight of the next nine points. A pair of kills from sophomore
Comfort Akinbo and aces from senior
Chrissy Campanelli and rookie
Dahlia Shoukry earned the Scarlet Raiders an 18-10 lead. R-N held that margin for the remainder of the set en route to a 25-17 win.
A back-and-forth second game featured six ties and six lead changes. The Eagles led 18-13 before the Scarlet Raiders ripped off seven straight points led by three kills from senior
Morgan Schweitzer and a pair of aces from freshman
Karly Gregoire. Still, the hosts fought back and scraped out a 25-23 victory to even the match at 1-1.
Up 15-13 in the third set, Rutgers-Newark gained a more sizeable advantage when it took seven of the next nine points. Two aces from sophomore
Brione Lockett and two kills by junior
Cassie Luken allowed the visitors to open up a 22-15 lead. While St. Elizabeth won the next two points, the visitors closed out the set with three in a row punctuated by another Luken kill to secure a 25-17 win.
The Scarlet Raiders took control early in the fourth game, rattling off six consecutive points to start the set featuring a pair of kills each from Akinbo and Luken as well as an ace by Gregoire. The Eagles closed the gap to 10-7 but R-N went on a 12-3 surge to claim an insurmountable 22-10 lead. The visitors finished off the game with a 25-16 win to claim the 3-1 victory for the match.
Schweitzer and Luken led the Scarlet Raiders with double-digit kills, recording 17 and 14 respectively. Akinbo added another nine while senior
Sue Riley racked up a match-high 21 digs. Gregoire steered the offense with a match-best 37 assists.
Rutgers-Newark returns to New Jersey Athletic Conference action next week when they host Rutgers-Camden at 7 p.m. on October 3.
