Box Score 

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT became the champion of its own 2008 Halloween Classic women's volleyball tournament, defeating Howard, 3-1, in the final mtch Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

NJIT, which had won its previous two matches in the tournament by 3-0 scores, needed four challenging sets to defeat Howard. NJIT topped the Bison, 25-21, 25-19, 20-25 and 25-15 to finish the Classic with a 3-0 record.

The other three teams in the tournament—Howard, Bryant and Providence all finished 1-2. The Bison had defeated Providence, 3-1, immediately before taking on the Highlanders.

NJIT's overall record is 16-11, while Howard drops to 14-18 overall.

The Highlanders again benefitted from a diverse attack, as four players came through with double-figure kills totals, led by 16 for freshman Renata Pandolfo, who also contributed 11 digs on the defensive side. She was named to the eight-player all-tournament team.

Sophomore Baaba Hughes, who also made all-tournament, came through with 14 kills. Katrina Hornstein had 13 kills and Agnieszka Pregowska had 11, sporting a deadly .474 attack percentage, with just two errors on 19 attempts. NJIT setter Erica Schultz finished with 40 assists.

In a rarity this season, the Highlanders were outscored in the serving game, 11 aces to five. Hornstein and Pandolfo each had two service aces.

Sabrina Baby led the Highlanders with 18 digs and Pregowska and Kristy Haeckel had two blocks apiece.

Howard got a fine performance throughout the tournament from Gazelle d'Artois (all-tournament), who led all hitters against NJJT with 18 kills to go with six of her team's 11 aces. Jiyana Brown (all-tournament) added 10 kills to the Bison attack and Grace DeMichelis distributed 35 assists.

Nicole Brown paced Howard with a match-best 22 digs and Taylor Johnson was the individual match leader in blocks, with five (one solo, four assists).

NJIT got five kills, including set point, from Pregowska in a hard-fought first frame won by the Highlanders, 25-21. NJIT broke a 9-9 tie on a block by Haeckel and Hughes, but could not pull away, never building a lead of more than four points.

The Highlanders took off with a 7-1 lead to open the second set and got their advantage up to eight points before finishing with the 25-19 verdict, as four different players had at least four kills each in the set.

Howard had its best hitting set in the third, connecting for 12 kills in 37 attempts with just two errors for solid .297 team hitting percentage. There were four early ties before Howard took control with a 7-2 run that turned a 14-14 tie into a 21-15 lead. NJIT got back to within a point at 20-21, but Howard finished off the set with four straight kills—two by Elyssa Lee.

The fourth set was close early with teams going back and forth and neither going ahead by more than a point until NJIT gained an 11-9 advantage. Howard took the next four points for a 13-11 lead, but the Highlanders closed out the match with a 14-2 sprint to the finish, aided by five Howard errors that accounted for the last five Highlander points. Hughes had five kills and Pandolfo added four in the last set for NJIT.

The Halloween Classic three-match sweep by NJIT was a reversal of the earlier its earlier home tournament when the Highlanders were winless in the Highlander Challenge, falling to UMBC, Loyola (MD) and Sacred Heart. That tournament on September 12 and 13 was part of a 2-6 start to the season for NJIT, which is 14-5 in the 19 matches since.

With three regular season matches remaining, the Highlanders will visit to Wagner on Wednesday with an 8 pm start on Staten Island. The match will be the second this year for the two teams after the Highlanders won the first meeting, 3-0, on September 9 in Newark.

Here are the results of the two-day Halloween Classic:

Friday

Match One—Bryant 3, Howard 1

Match Two—NJIT 3, Providence 0

Saturday

Match Three—Providence 3, Bryant 0

Match Four—NJIT 3, Bryant 0

Match Five—Howard 3, Providence 1

Match Six—NJIT 3, Howard 1

Team tournament records:

NJIT, 3-0

Howard, 1-2

Providence, 1-2

Bryant, 1-2

All-Halloween Classic Team

Baaba Hughes, NJIT

Renata Pandolfo, NJIT

Elizabeth Flynn, Providence

Jeanette Toney, Providence

Hilary Andrews, Bryant

Delia Glover, Bryant

Gazelle d'Artois, Howard

Jiyana Brown, Howard