Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—Danica Vukotic nailed 16 kills Wednesday afternoon, leading the NJIT attack in a 3-0 women's volleyball sweep of visiting St. Francis Brooklyn in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The win in their first match in a week was the second in a row for the Highlanders, who upped their season record to 4-10 with the 25-14, 25-15, 25-18 victory against the Terriers, who fell to 5-15. Wednesday's match was the second this season between NJIT and St. Francis and it was a near-reversal of the first meeting in Brooklyn on September 6, when the Terriers won, 25-11, 25-17, 25-21.
 
Vukotic, the sophomore hitter, was one of three Highlanders with double-figure kills totals in a match that saw NJIT post a season-best team attack percentage of .298 (46 kills, 15 errors, 104 attempts). Vukotic got her 16 kills on 31 swings, with just 3 errors (.419).
 
Remarkably, Vukotic did not have her team's best hitting percentage among players with at least 10 attempts. That honor went to Valerie Carroll, who hit .421, with 10 kills and 2 errors on just 19 attempts. Cathy Leung added 11 kills for the Highlanders and Julia Colombo joined Carroll in dominating the middle, with 4 kills and no errors in 7 swings (.571).  
 
Fran Edmondson collected a match-best 36 assists and the Highlanders, who also had an 8-4 advantage in service aces were paced in that category by Nina Vukotic, Danica's twin sister, who had 4 aces.
 
On defense, Katie Goswick's 10 digs paced the victors on the floor and Carroll had 3 block assists to lead NJIT at the net.
 
St. Francis, with only 20 kills as a team, did not have an individual with double-figures in that department. The leader was freshman Domenique Gerard, a graduate of nearby Science Park High School, who had 7 kills in her first college contest in her hometown.
 
Kelly O'Halloran's 11 assists topped SFC and Feliz Ramirez had two of the four aces served by St. Francis. She also led the team in digs, with 7, while Ninely Sosa's 4 block assists paced the visitors who had a team blocking advantage of 5-3 over NJIT.
 
Wednesday's win was relatively comfortable for the Highlanders, evidenced both by the fact that they won every set by at least 7 points and that there was only one lead change in the entire match. And that came when NJIT, down 0-1, scored the next 6 points of the opening set.
 
Leung, with 5 kills, and Danica Vukotic, with 4, led NJIT in the opening set, as the Highlanders set the tone by taking the set, 25-14.
 
There were three ties in the second set, the latest at 12-12, with Carroll notching back-to-back kills to break the deadlock and propel the Highlanders to 25-15 win.
 
The third set was the closest at the end, 25-18, but NJIT got a kill from Danica Vukotic to make it 2-1 and the Highlanders led for the rest of the match. Vukotic got 6 of her kills in the final set, leading the Highlanders in their closeout set win.
 
NJIT which has not been busy recently, with two matches since September 21, will return to competition quickly now, hosting Lafayette on Friday at 6 pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center.