Box Score


NEWARK, NJ—Freshman outside hitter Jasmine Casey registered a match-best 22 kills, helping visiting Houston Baptist to a 3-1 (25-18, 25-27, 28-26, 25-21) over NJIT in the Great West Conference opener for both teams Thursday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Casey, the focal point of the HBU attack, posted a .314 attack percentage with her 22 kills and just six errors in 51 swings. She also had 17 digs on the defensive side.
 
The victory, which snapped a brief two-match losing streak for the Huskies, lifted their overall record to 13-5. NJIT, which had won its previous two matches, drops to 5-11 overall.
 
The only other visitor with double-figures in kills was senior middle Jolie Graf, with 10. Junior Victoria Weatherly collected 46 assists for Houston Baptist.
 
Courtney Whittleman, HBU's senior libero, came up with a match-high 26 digs and her two service aces were high for her team, as each side finished with five aces.
 
Houston Baptist had a decided advantage at the net, with a 9.5-to-3 lead in team blocks. Graf was the top individual for the Huskies with six total blocks (1 solo, 5 assists), while Weatherly added four blocks, all assisted.
 
NJIT's two kills leaders were Janet Snell (19) and Renata Pandolfo (11). The duo also had 13 digs apiece, as the Highlanders saw five different players record at least 11 digs.
 
The Highlanders were effective hitting from the middle, as Julia Colombo, Gretchen VonKoenig, and Fernanda Lima combined for 21 kills and five errors in 47 swings (.340).
 
Junior Anna Mercado finished with 44 assists for the Highlanders. NJIT's serve leaders were senior Audrey Snell and freshman Katie Goswick, with two aces each. Goswick and HBU's hitting star for the night, Jasmine Casey, were teammates and classmates at Friendswood High School in Friendswood, TX, outside of Houston.
 
Audrey Snell, the senior libero for the Highlanders led her team in digs, with 15. In addition to the 13 digs from Janet Snell and Pandolfo, NJIT got 13 digs from Mercado and 11 from Goswick.
 
Colombo had one block solo and one block assist to lead the home team in that department.
 
The easiest set for HBU was the first, as the Huskies set the tone, 25-18. The Huskies never trailed and led for good from 4-3 on in a set where both teams hit with minimal errors (Houston Baptist had 16 kills and one error; NJIT had 14 kills and three errors). e Casey had seven kills without an error in the set for the winners and NJIT's Colombo, the current Great West Player of the Week ,had five kills and no errors in seven attempts (.714).
 
NJIT won a sloppy, but close second set, 27-25, as the Highlanders prevailed despite six service errors that likely prevented them from clinching the set earlier. NJIT went up 13-7, but then committed two attack errors before getting another point that preceded another attack error, back-to-back aces for HBU's Whittleman and a kill for Casey, knotting the score at 14-14. There would be eight more ties all the way to 25-25, before the Highlanders finally prevailed on a kill for Pandolfo and a Husky error.
 
The third set was cleaner, but just as close, with neither team leading by more than three and 10 ties until Casey notched her fifth and sixth kills of the set, respectively on her team's last two points in the 28-26 win.
 
The fourth and final set was well-played by both sides, particularly Houston Baptist, which was strong in the attack and on defense. The Huskies, who led from 3-2 on, built an 11-6 lead after a kill for the setter, Weatherly. The Highlanders, down 7-12, fought back with a 4-0 run that included back-to-back aces for Goswick, the Houston-area native.
 
The 4-0 run got NJIT back within a point of the lead, but after trading points, the Highlanders fell back in the face of a 7-2 spurt that put the Huskies back on top, 20-14. The Highlanders made one last 4-1 run to make it 19-22, but the visitors sealed the set and match with a 4-2 closing run, capped by Casey's kill on match point.
 
The Highlanders, who will play all but two of their remaining matches in the GWC, will host another conference foe on Saturday at 5 pm, when Texas-Pan American comes to the Fleisher Athletic Center.