Montclair, NJ – Freshman
LEAH HIGGINS registered 12 kills and four blocks as Montclair State closed out its NJAC slate with a 3-1 victory over Rutgers-Newark at the Panzer Athletic Center on Tuesday evening.
Freshman
CARLY WATERMAN added nine kills and 15 digs as the Red Hawks (14-6) knocked off the Scarlet Raiders (14-8) for the seventh time in the last eight meetings. Montclair won the match by scores of 25-19, 25-14, 25-12.
MSU finished its league schedule at 5-3 and will now wait to see where it will be seeded in the NJAC Tournament which begins on Tuesday, October 30. Rutgers-Newark is 4-3 with one match remaining against Rowan.
Both teams battled back and forth in a first set that featured eight ties and four lead chances. Montclair went on top for good at 14-13 on a kill by
VICTORIA TENNON and added another as
ALEXANDRA CAMPOS served up an ace. The lead grew wider to 20-15 thanks to a four-point run and MSU went up 24-17 on an ace by
MEGAN O'ROURKE. The Raiders kept the set going with the next two however Higgins' fourth kill in the opening set gave MSU a 1-0 lead.
In the second set, Montclair led 13-10 before scoring four in a row taking advantage of three Raider errors. Waterman added a kill making the score 22-13 with
NATALIA MAJKUT and Tennon each adding another for 24-14 advantage. A hitting error by Rutgers-Newark gave Montclair State the second set and a 2-0 lead.
The Red Hawks scored the first five points of the third set, including four kills by Higgins. Campos extended the lead to 9-3 with an ace and a kill by Tennon made it a 16-8 lead.
SIYARA HERBERT recorded an ace for a 21-9 advantage and one from Danielle Muray got MSU within two points of winning the match (23-11). Waterman finished off the set and the match with the final two kills.
Tennon added seven kills and four blocks for Montclair State, which got six kills and five blocks from Majkut. Griffith had 33 assists and eight digs. Campos and
APRIL DIANGELO reached double digits for digs with 13 and 12 respectively.
The Red Hawks return to action on Thursday, October 18 with another home match. Montclair hosts New York University at 7:00 pm.
