ANNVILLE, Pa. (November 7, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's volleyball team saw its 2018 campaign come to an end tonight in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Championships at Lebanon Valley College, 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-14). The Scarlet Raiders conclude this season with a 16-12 record while the Dutchmen improve to 18-12 and move on to the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Despite a tough ending, R-N had a strong fall. The team's 16 wins were the most since 2014 and its four victories in a difficult New Jersey Athletic Conference marks the program's top performance since 2006. The Raiders bounced back from last season and returned to both the NJAC and ECAC Tournaments after a one-year hiatus and will look to build on this momentum in 2019.

Senior Cassie Luken and junior Comfort Akinbo led the way for Rutgers-Newark with eight kills apiece while Luken shared team-high honors with 10 digs. Rookie Sharon Starling added six winners and junior Brione Lockett joined Luken with 10 digs. Sophomore Karly Gregoire orchestrated the offense with 22 assists and chipped in a squad-best three aces.

The first set featured just one tie and one lead change despite a competitive early battle. The Raiders won the first point of the match and overcame an early 4-2 deficit to force the game's lone deadlock at 4-4. Unfortunately, the closest the visitors would get for the rest of the set was 6-5 as the hosts built a 12-6 lead that they would not relinquish.

LVC slowly grew its advantage to eight and while a Starling kill helped R-N back within 21-15, the Dutchmen closed out the game with four straight points to take a 1-0 edge.

The Scarlet Raiders opened the second set with the first two points, including a Starling ace. Still, Lebanon Valley reeled off 10 consecutive points to take an insurmountable lead.

Rutgers-Newark was able to claw back to within 16-12 on winners from Luken, Akinbo, and Starling in addition to an ace from Gregoire but it would not be enough. The home side went on a 9-3 run to end the game and widen their lead to 2-0.

The final set followed a similar pattern as the Raiders again took the first point but the Dutchmen soon wrested control, earning the next 12 tallies to gain a double-digit advantage.

Spikes by the trio of Luken, Akinbo, and Starling again tried to bring the visitors back. Newark was able to cut its deficit to single digits at 14-5 but that was as close as the team would get. LVC took 11 of the last 20 points en route to a 25-14 win and 3-0 victory overall.