Box score

FAIRFIELD, CT—Sacred Heart won its 12th straight match and upped its 2010 record to 17-4 with a decisive sweep of visiting NJIT in non-conference women's volleyball Thursday night.

The powerful Pioneers won all three sets by comfortable margins, topping the Highlanders, 25-13, 25-12, and 25-17. Sacred Heart has won 17 of its last 18 since opening the season at 0-3 in a tournament at Long Beach State in August.

Dianis Mercado, a star freshman for SHU, led all players with 17 kills, while Ashlyn Trimble added 11 kills Each of the two kills leaders made just three errors and the Pioneers team hitting percentage was .322. Setter Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek picked up 35 assists for the winners.

Seven different players served aces for Sacred Heart, which had an 8-3 team advantage over NJIT in that phase of the game.

In a statistical oddity, the Pioneers, despite sweeping the match, did not have any blocks. However, they had three players with doubles in digs, led by Christina Bauch (12), while Mercado  and Jessica Colberg each had 11 digs.

NJIT's attack leader was senior Baaba Hughes, who finished with six kills. Anna Mercado had 14 assists for the Highlanders.

The three aces for NJIT were served by three different players.

NJIT, which had five team blocks, got three block assists each from Fernanda Lima and Valerie Carroll, while Julia Colombo added the only block solo in the match, along with a block assist.

Audrey Snell was the digs leader for the Highlanders, with 12. Janet Snell and Anna Mercado each picked up eight digs.

NJIT, which has completed the non-conference portion of its schedule with the match at Sacred Heart, is off for a week before facing another big task.

The Highlanders (4-14) will host North Dakota on Thursday, October 21, at 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. North Dakota won both the regular season and postseason championship of the Great West Conference in 2009 and North Dakota is off to 14-5 overall and 4-0 conference start in 2010.