Box Score
HOUSTON—Hitters Baaba Hughes and Renata Pandolfo combined for 29 kills, leading NJIT to a 3-1 win over host Houston Baptist Saturday afternoon, as the Highlanders completed a 2-0 first-ever Great West Conference women's volleyball weekend.
NJIT, now 11-5 overall, had defeated Texas-Pan American, 3-0, in the Highlanders' Great West debut Friday night in a match in Houston Baptist's Sharp Gymnasium.
Saturday's scores saw the Highlanders spot HBU the first set, won by the Huskies, 25-22. But NJIT came back to claim the match with a sweep of the next three sets, 25-18, 25-23, and 25-16.
Hughes and Pandolfo were joined by senior setter Erica Schultz in posting double-doubles for the Highlanders. Hughes, a junior, notched a match-best 15 kills to go with 10 digs, while Pandolfo added 14 kills and 15 digs, along with a pair of blocks—one solo and one assisted.
Schultz finished with 36 assists and 17 digs, while senior Katrina Hornstein picked up 14 digs. NJIT, the national Division I team leader in digs per set, finished with 93 on Saturday, paced by Sabrina Baby, the Division I individual leader, who collected 29 digs in four sets. Five Highlanders reached double-figures digs totals.
The team blocking was even and the service aces were close, as both teams had eight team blocks and the Highlanders had a slim 3-2 edge in service aces. Baby had two of NJIT's aces and freshman Fernando Lima led the blocking with four on three block assists and a block solo.
Houston Baptist (5-12, 1-3 GWC) got 12 kills from Ligia Clemente and 11 from Heather Leverton, who also had 12 digs. Natalie Magat picked up 40 assists and Courtney Whittleman finished with a match-best 31 digs, while Sarah Hazlewood and Danielle Cooper each had four blocks for the Huskies.
NJIT led the hard-fought first set early, but Houston Baptist came back and took the lead for good at 19-18. The second set was tied, 13-13, before the Highlanders ran off three straight points to take control of the set, which ended on a 6-2 NJIT spurt.
Houston Baptist had three-point leads at four separate junctures of the third set, the latest at 11-8. But NJIT used a 13-1 rally, led by four kills from Hughes, to go up 21-12. The Huskies fought back with a 10-2 spurt of their own, pulling to within a point of the lead twice at 22-23 and 23-24, before Pandolfo put to a kill that allowed the Highlanders to claim the set, 25-23.
NJIT never trailed the fourth set, but the home team had closed to within a point at 15-16 when the Highlanders ran off eight straight points—five on Huskies attack errors—to come to match point, which Hughes delivered on an assist by Schultz.
The Highlanders, who are off for a week, will resume play with their inaugural Great West Conference home match on Saturday at 2 pm, when they host Chicago State in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
