Jersey City, NJ – Senior outside hitter
LEAH HIGGINS collected 12 kills with sophomore
SKYLAR KOWALSKI adding six along with six blocks as Montclair State clinched the No. 2 seed in the upcoming NJAC Tournament with a 3-0 victory over New Jersey City on Tuesday evening.
Senior
DELANEY ST. PIERRE totaled 23 assists, eight digs and three kills for the Red Hawks (18-10), who completed their conference slate at 7-1. MSU will get a first-round bye and host a semifinal contest on Thursday, November 4 at the Panzer Athletic Center.
Montclair registered its 13
th straight win over the Gothic Knights as it took the match 25-18, 25-15 and 25-19 to improve to 31-8 in the all-time series.
The Red Hawks recorded six of the first seven points in the opening set, but only led 9-8 before scoring five of the next seven to create some distance. Kowalski had two blocks and a kill giving MSU a 14-10 advantage. That lead grew to 20-14 with a kill by Kowalski five points later making the score 22-17 After NJCU picked up one, Montclair State closed out the set with kills by St. Pierre and Kowalski and a combined block by Kowalski and Higgins on final point.
MSU jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the second and led 15-8 after a three-point run capped off by a Kowalski solo block. The Gothic Knights would get within 17-13, but four in row by the Red Hawks widened the lead to 21-13. A Higgins kill,
KATIE RODMAN ace and block from
GIANNA ARIAS and
VICTORIA TENNON put the Red Hawks within a point of the second set. Following a service error by MSU, Tennon put down the final point with a kill as Montclair led 2-0 in the match with the 25-15 win.
The third set would be close until a four-point spurt by Montclair State got the score to 14-10 in favor of the Red Hawks.
KATELYN MONAGHAN served an ace for the 17-12 advantage with MSU putting together a 5-0 run for a 22-13 lead. Freshman
KIARA POLANCO had a kill and block in that span. NJCU would notch six of the next seven to get within 23-19. However, MSU ended the set as Kowalski slammed down a set from Pierre before
KELLY WATERMAN came up with an ace on match point.
Polanco finished with four kills and seven digs while Monaghan and St. Pierre had eight digs apiece. Higgins and Arias each posted four blocks.
The Red Hawks will close out their regular-season on Saturday, October 30 in Poughkeepsie, NY as MSU meets Vassar College at 3:00 pm.
