Wayne, NJ – The Montclair State University volleyball team fell 3-0 to William Paterson in their 2025 New Jersey Athletic Conference opener on Tuesday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Red Hawks (8-3, 0-1 NJAC) fell behind early, as the Pioneers accumulated six consecutive kills to begin the match. BRYN BAUTISTA ended the run with a kill, and a pair of attack errors cut the deficit in half. Later in the stanza, William Paterson notched four points in a row to jump out to a 18-9 advantage, but a pair of errors and a kill from CAMRYN MUUSS trimmed the deficit to six. The two sides traded the next 10 points before another pair of errors from the Pioneers made the score 23-19. After the home side reached set point, Montclair came within two on a trio of errors, but William Paterson claimed the opening set on a kill following a timeout.
• LUCY CORNELIUS opened the second frame with an ace followed by an error from the Pioneers, who countered with five in a row and nine of the next 12 points to go up 9-5. After the Pioneers pushed their advantage to five a few points later, Montclair notched three of the next four points to climb back to 13-10. A 6-2 run from the home side pushed the lead back to seven, but Montclair responded with three of the next four points, highlighted by another kill from Muuss. William Paterson answered with three kills of their own, a run stopped by Bautista to make the score 23-19. The Pioneers closed the set with the next two points to double their lead in the match.
• With the two sides level at nine early in the third stanza, an attack error and a kill from Muuss opened a two point advantage for the visitors before the Pioneers equalized right after. Down one, 14-13, Montclair rattled off four consecutive points, including a kill from BREANNA CRAIG, to jump out by three. After William Paterson cut the deficit to one, the Red Hawks used four of the next five points to push the margin to 21-17. The Pioneers countered with the next five to jump ahead by one, but Montclair used three of the next four to climb ahead to set point. William Paterson closed the contest with the last three points to claim the conference opener.

INSIDE THE RESULTS

• Muuss led the way offensively for Montclair, accumulating seven kills. Bautista finished close behind with six to go along with 10 digs.
• EMMA HATCHER notched 15 digs defensively for the Red Hawks, marking her eighth double-digit total of the campaign.
• LILY THOMAS tallied four blocks, one off her season-high. 

FROM THE COURT

"Credit to William Paterson as they played a solid match. We dug ourselves in a hole early on that we couldn't overcome, yet, we kept battling and made it a close first set. You look at set one and three and clean an error or two there and it's a different game. We have two nonconference games this weekend in which will help us work on some key areas of our game in order to be ready for next Tuesday." - Head Coach Eduardo Stawinski

UP NEXT

The Red Hawks will travel to Madison, NJ for a tri-match on Saturday, September 27. They will take on DeSales at 2:00 PM and then face the hosts Drew at 4:00 PM.