BROOKLYN, NY—The NJIT women's volleyball team completed play in Long Island University's Blackbird Invitational on Saturday, losing to host LIU in the morning, 3-0, and then to Georgetown in the afternoon, 3-1.

LIU, which has won every Northeast Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each year from 2004 to 2009, defeated the Highlanders, 25-21, 25-19, and 25-15. 

Georgetown, another strong program from the Big East Conference, dropped the first set to NJIT, 23-25, before rebounding, 25-23, 25-14, 25-15.

The top attackers for NJIT against LIU were Baaba Hughes (9 kills, .320 hitting percentage) and Janet Snell (8 kills). Anna Mercado picked up 14 assists, while freshman Katie Bartlett served three aces, leading the Highlanders to a 5-2 edge in that category.

On defense, Bartlett and Audrey Snell shared the team lead with 11 digs apiece. Beaten decisively in the blocking game, 8-3, NJIT was paced by two block assists from Julia Colombo.

The victorious Blackbirds hit .307 as a team and got a match-best 21 kills from Hanna Gibeau. She was the only LIU hitter with double-figures in kills, but Jessica Rice had nine kills and just one error, and Zuzana Buchlova had eight kills and two errors. Setter Vanessa Gemignani had 33 assists for Long Island.

On defense, Buchlova and Chelsey Stanton had 16 digs apiece and Rice had six total blocks (1 solo, 5 assisted).

In the afternoon match, Hughes again paced the NJIT attack, notching 13 kills, while the freshman, Bartlett, posted 10 kills. Mercado had 20 assists and freshman Carly Ziemer added 12.

The brightest stats for the Highlanders came in digs, the category in which the 2009 NJIT team led the nation. Three players had double-figure digs totals, paced by Audrey Snell's 25. Bartlett added 16 and Janet Snell finished with 11.

Unlike the first match, where NJIT did well in serve reception, the Highlanders struggled against Georgetown, which piled up 13 aces to four (from four different NJIT players). Georgetown's Samantha Trauth had four aces and Tory Rezin had three.

Georgetown also dominated the team blocking, 11-4. Lindsay Wise had nine blocks to lead the Hoyas, with one solo and eight assisted. For NJIT, Colombo and fellow freshman Valerie Carroll each had two block assists.

The Hoyas had three players with double-figure kills totals, led by 15 for Elizabeth Riggins. Setter Ashley Malone was credited with 46 assists.

The run of difficult opponents will continue for the Highlanders when they open Great West Conference play at Utah Valley on Thursday in a 7 pm (Mountain) start. UVU finished second in the Great West last season and is the preseason coaches' poll pick to finish second again in 2010. NJIT and Utah Valley split their two matches last season, with the Highlanders winning in Newark and the Wolverines winning in Orem.