Box score
2008 Highlanders Challenge all-Tournament team
NEWARK, NJ—Sacred Heart defeated NJIT, 3-0 (25-23, 25-21 and 25-20) in the final match of the two-day Highlander Challenge women's volleyball tournament Saturday evening in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
The win left the Pioneers at 2-1, good for second place in the Highlander Challenge. They are 5-5 for the season. NJIT finished 0-3 in the tournament and is 2-6 for the season. Earlier, UMBC defeated Sacred Heart, 3-1, to finish with a 3-0 record in the Highlander Challenge. Loyola of Maryland finished third at 1-2.
Three freshmen from California—Ashlyn Trimble (13 kills); Brittany Best (12) and Maile Hetherington (11)—led the Pioneers offense. Agnieszka Pregowska and Renata Pandolfo each hit eight kills for the Highlanders.
Sacred Heart setter Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek finished with 38 assists, while NJIT's Danielle Thompson had 25.
The visitors had a 7-3 advantage in service aces, led by three apiece from Jessica Colberg and Aurora Appel. Colberg is another freshman Californian.
On defense, Colberg had a team-high 21 digs, leading three Pioneers with double-figures in that category. Sabrina Baby of NJIT led everyone with 31 digs.
Sacred Heart also controlled the blocking, with a 9-4 team advantage at the net. Trimble and Kidd-Kadlubek each had three total blocks (1 solo, 2 assists). Four Highlanders—Pregowska, Kristy Haeckel, Thompson and Pandolfo—had two block assists each.
Sacred Heart took the first set, 25-23. led by five kills for Trimble. Neither team led by more than three through the first 22 points, but Sacred Heart went up, 23-19 on Colberg's service ace and the Pioneers pushed to set point, 24-19. The Highlanders answered with four straight points to make it 23-24, but Trimble's five kill clinched the set for the visitors.
Sacred Heart took a 2-0 lead in sets with a 25-21 win in the second frame, led by Best's, five kills in just seven tries. The Pioneers, who never trailed, opened the set at 10-3 and still led by seven, 17-10. But NJIT got within three, 18-21, before Sacred Heart iced the win. Baby had 12 digs in the set for the Highlanders.
Sacred Heart, which never trailed in the third set, got five kills apiece in the frame from Trimble and Hetherington.
The all-tournament team was: Pandolfo and Baby of NJIT; Best and Hetherington of Sacred Heart; Rachel Schillinger and Nina Camaioni of Loyola; and, Alyssa Lang and Sarah Ball of UMBC.
The Highlanders will be in action at home on Wednesday at 7 pm, when they host Seton Hall in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
