Box score
PHILADELPHIA—The NJIT women's volleyball team continued its impressive roll, extending its winning streak to seven Tuesday night at La Salle, where the Highlanders swept the Explorers, 3-0, in Tom Gola Arena.
NJIT, which was 2-6 on September 13, has won eight of its last nine and raised its overall record to 10-7. Six of the wins in NJIT's seven-match victory streak have come by 3-0 scores.
The Highlanders put their stamp on the night immediately, routing the home team in the first set, 25-5. The next two sets were much closer, but NJIT prevailed, 25-22 and 26-24.
Renata Pandolfo, Baaba Hughes and Agnieszka Pregowska all had strong matches in the NJIT offense. Pandolfo had 11 kills, just two errors and a .429 attack percentage. Hughes had nine kills and Pregowska had seven kills.
Erica Schultz, whose season debut on September 17 against Seton Hall coincided with the start of her team's current 8-1 run, collected 22 assists as NJIT's setter.
Pandolfo, the freshman from Brazil who is emerging as a strong all-around player, led all players in the match with 13 digs on defense to go with her match-best 11 kills on offense. Katrina Hornstein added 10 digs for the Highlanders.
Sabrina Baby notched a match-best three services aces for NJIT, which also dominated at the net, owning an 8-1 advantage in team blocks. Kristy Haeckel led the Highlanders with three individual blocks (two solo, one assist). Pregowska also had two block solos for NJIT.
Rachel Stemper led La Salle in both kills (10) and digs (8). The Explorers used two setters, with Kourtney Clark getting 15 assists and Carly Conlon 12.
The early disparity between the two teams was underlined in the first-set hitting statistics, as NJIT combined for 10 kills and just one errors in 20 attempts for a blistering .450 team hitting percentage. La Salle, meanwhile, had three times as many errors (9) as kills (3) and a nightmarish negative team attack percentage of -.231 for the opening set.
NJIT's hitting numbers came back to earth in the remaining two sets and La Salle got its attack into the positive side over the final two sets, but in the end, NJIT had 21 more kills than errors, while La Salle was just three kills to the plus side.
All seven wins in their winning streak have come on the road, but the Highlanders will try to extend the streak at home on the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center, when they host Lehigh next Tuesday, October 7, at 7 pm.
