New York, NY – The day did not begin the way the Montclair State volleyball team envisioned. However, in the end the Red Hawks got the results they wanted as they upped their win streak to 12 with victories over Hunter College and Mount St. Mary on Saturday.

Senior CARLY WATERMAN became the sixth player to reach 1,000 career kills as Montclair (16-7) battled back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Hunter in five before recording a 3-1 triumph against Mount St. Mary. The 12-match winning streak is the longest under head coach Eddie Stawinski and one shy of the all-time record set during the 1996 season.

Against Hunter, Montclair dropped the first two sets 25-17, 25-16, but rallied to tie the match with identical 25-20 victories in the third and fourth to force the decisive fifth set. The Red Hawks tailed 6-3 but reeled off four in a row to take the lead. The Hawks (8-10) knotted it back up on the next rally, but a service error and kill by GIANNA ARIAS made the score 9-7.

The Red Hawks used a big four-point run, three of it supplied by LEAH HIGGINS, whose kill and two blocks gave Montclair a 13-8 advantage did not go away as it pulled within 13-11 on a Lojano Mariapaz kill. Freshman NADYA ACKERMANIAN answered with a kill for MSU and after and error put the score at 14-12, Waterman won for Montclair State with the last of her 15 kills.

Ackermanian finished with 13 kills for the Red Hawks, who won a five-setter for the first time in five tries this year. SKYLAR KOWALSKI and Arias (six blocks) had seven kills each with the duo combining for nine blocks. KELLY WATERMAN picked up 29 assists, four aces and nine digs with KATELYN MONAGHAN leading the way for MSU with 22 digs. KATIE RODMAN and KIARA POLANCO totaled 11 and 10 digs, respectively.

The Red Hawks would drop the first set to Mount St. Mary, 25-16 before storming back with 25-15, 25-12 and 25-21 wins over the final three. Montclair State his .376 for the match, including 13-of-19 in the fourth.

Waterman, who entered the match needing three to reach the magic number, got it during the third set when MSU tallied four straight points to move in front 5-1. She joined Heather Aciz, Jill Gastelu, Courtney Matlock, Anna Chesnakova and Kara Burnham in the exclusive club. She finished with seven raising her total to 1,004.

Higgins led the way with 12 kills with Kowalski adding 11 and six blocks. KELLY WATERMAN tallied another 22 assists and Arias had three kills and seven blocks.

The Red Hawks return to the Panzer Athletic Center for its final regular-season home match on Tuesday, October 19. Montclair State hosts Misericordia at 7pm on Senior Night honoring their five – Waterman, Higgins, Monaghan, VICTORIA TENNON and DELANEY ST. PIERRE.