NEWARK, N.J. (October 25, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's volleyball team cruised to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-20) victory over visiting the College of Saint Elizabeth in non-conference action on Senior Night in The Golden Dome. The Scarlet Raiders complete their 2018 regular season with a 16-10 record while the Eagles fall to 7-18.

Before the match, Rutgers-Newark honored senior Cassie Luken who then proceeded to lead the home side on the court. Luken racked up 12 kills and eight digs while rookie Sharon Starling added nine winners. Junior Brione Lockett had a squad-best 13 digs and sophomore Karly Gregoire orchestrated the offense with 26 assists in addition to four aces. Junior Analis Capobianco recorded a match-best five aces and classmate Comfort Akinbo compiled a fantastic five total blocks.

The Scarlet Raiders will return to action on Tuesday as the no. 5 seed in the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship Tournament when they head to fourth-seeded Montclair State for a 7 p.m. match.

R-N never trailed in the first set, winning the first four points and eventually building a commanding 18-11 lead that forced the visitors to take a timeout. Four different Raiders had a kill during that stretch led by three from Luken.

While CSE rallied to take the next two points after the timeout, the hosts quickly recovered to win seven of the last eight tallies and win the stanza 25-14, punctuated by another Luken winner.
Newark posted a strong .333 attacking percentage for the game on 10 kills and only two errors.

Outside of four early deadlocks, the last coming at 5-5, the Scarlet Raiders remained in control for the entirety of the second set, never trailing.

R-N turned a 5-5 tie into a seven-point edge by taking nine of 11 opportunities that made it 14-7.

The Eagles were able to pull within five on six separate occasions but could not get closer as the Raiders closed out the set with the last four points, capped by a pair of Gregoire aces to win the game 25-16 and take a 2-0 lead.

Rutgers-Newark jumped out to a 7-3 advantage in the third stanza, punctuated by back-to-back aces from Capobianco that forced a timeout for the visitors.

Another Luken spike had the Scarlet Raiders up by as much as 20-13, but Saint Elizabeth rallied, winning seven consecutive points to knot the game at 20-20.

Still, following an R-N timeout, the home team recovered and took the last five points of the match, featuring a pair of kills apiece from Luken and Starling to close out the 3-0 victory.