Mahwah, NJ (10/31/06) – The #5 seeded Red Hawks of Montclair State and the Ramapo College Roadrunners, seeded #4, matched up tonight at the Bradley Center in Mahwah in the opening round of the 2006 NJAC Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament.
The Red Hawks fought back after dropping game one to take home the win, 3-1 (23-20, 30-23, 30-16, 30-21) advancing to face the #1 seeded Ospreys of Richard Stockton in the semifinals on Thursday, November 2 at 7:00 pm in Pomona, NJ.
Montclair improves to 14-19 overall while the Roadrunners fall to 18-12 on the year.
Montclair jumped out to a 5-1 start in game one before the Roadrunners came back to tie the game at six. The game continued to seesaw until the Roadrunners took control and opened the gap 29-21 after a 4-0 run. Rookies Maureen Hennecke (Fair Lawn, NJ) and Kaitlin Smith (Westwood, NJ) led the Roadrunners contributing four kills each while junior setter Ashley Cornett (Hawthorne, NJ) dished out a team high 11 assists. Cornett also grabbed six digs leading the team on the defensive end. The team hit .286 with 16 kills on 35 attempts while the Red Hawks hit a tough .000 with 11 kills on 44 attempts with 11 errors. For the Red Hawks,
KARA BURNHAM (Moorsetown, NJ) and
SAMANTHA KARPINSKI (Hackensack, NJ) posted three kills each and
RAISA SILVA (Newark, NJ) dished out ten assists.
Game two could have gone either way remaining close until the half way point when Montclair took over taking a 16-12 lead. They continued to control the game jumping ahead by six, 26-20 and taking the game, 30-23.
ANNA CHESNAKOVA (East Brunswick, NJ) recorded six kills leading the way while Karpinski followed with five. Silva contributed 16 assists. The team went 20-36 with only four errors hitting .444 over Ramapo's .192, 10-26 with five errors. Ramapo's Hennecke recorded five kills and Rochelle Kizhnerman (Paramus, NJ) led the defense with five digs.
Montclair out hit Ramapo in games three and four when senior
HEATHER ACIZ (Secaucus, NJ) took control posting eight kills in each of the final games. Montclair hit .429 in the third game before following with 17 kills on 37 attempts and only two errors in game four, .405. Silva added ten assists in game three while recording 14 in the final. Ramapo's Smith led the way in game three with five kills and the team recorded a combined ten kills in game four.
On the night, Aciz finished with 22 kills and Chesnakova and Karpinski followed with 14 and 12 respectively. Silva dished out 50 assists and
KAREN MARTIN (Sicklerville, NJ) and
JULIANA FERDINAND (Newark, NJ) each added six digs in the win.
Hennecke and Smith contributed 13 kills each for Ramapo while Cornett wrapped up the night with 31 assists. Kizhnerman recorded 13 digs and Christine Simmons (Upper Saddle River, NJ) posted 11.
Montclair recorded 64 kills in the win out hitting Ramapo's 44. The Red Hawks finished the night hitting .297 over Ramapo's .150.
