NEWARK, N.J. | The Scarlet Raiders women's volleyball team picked up their second straight win tonight when they hosted the Pioneers in a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) match. Rutgers University-Newark (13-8, 2-3) swept William Paterson (9-8, 1-4), 3-0 (25-16, 25-6, 25-17).
The women had their best hitting performance of the season tonight as they hit .392 as a team against the Pioneers. The Scarlet Raiders tallied 48 kills as a team while holding William Paterson to just 26 kills and .167 hitting.
Sharon Starling highlighted the match with a season-high 15 kills while
Comfort Akinbo followed up with 13. Starling hit .577 for the match and paced the team with 10 digs.
Karly Gregoire tallied 42 assists while
Analis Capobianco secured 10 service aces.
The Pioneers and Scarlet Raiders seesawed back-and-forth for the early goings of the opening set until Capobianco took over serving. Capobianco secured three kills during the Scarlet Raiders' 8-0 run to take a 17-10 lead. The Pioneers were unable to recover after the Scarlet Raiders took the lead as they fell behind 1-0 in the match.
The Scarlet Raiders opened up down 2-1 against the Pioneers in the second set then exploded with a 24-4 run. Capobianco was cerebral with her serves as she picked apart William Paterson with each serve. Akinbo secured four straight points to give her team a 20-6 lead in the set. The women stayed the course and took a 2-0 lead in the match against the NJAC opponents.
William Paterson jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third set before the Scarlet Raiders answered with a 5-0 run which forced the Pioneers to call a timeout. The timeout wouldn't prove useful as the Scarlet Raiders scored six more unanswered to take an 11-3 lead. The Pioneers cut the lead down to one when an attacking error by the Scarlet Raiders put the ball back in the Pioneers' hands. A service error, however, gave the ball back to the Scarlet Raiders which allowed them to go on a 5-0 run which sealed the match.
The Scarlet Raiders return to action on Thursday, October 17 when they travel across the bridge to take on New Jersey City University in NJAC action.
