LEWISBURG, PA—Karen Campbell and Erika Eastley each had 10 kills, leading the attack for victorious Bucknell, which swept visiting NJIT in 3 sets (25-18, 25-17, and 25-21) Saturday afternoon in women's volleyball.
 
Taking on back-to-back tests against teams nicknamed the Bison in less than 24 hours, the Highlanders got a 3-0 win on Friday vs. Howard, followed by a 3-0 loss at Bucknell on Saturday afternoon. Oddly, the Highlanders scored a 3-0 victory against the Bison with a stellar record (18-9 Howard on Friday) and lost in straight sets to the Bucknell Bison, who came in at 6-18.
 
On Friday night in NJIT's final 2014 home match, the Highlanders swept the Howard Bison, who came in with an 18-9 record that included what had been an ongoing 9-match winning streak and wins in 11 of Howard's previous 12 matches.
 
Bucknell, playing the final match of its 2014 when it hosted the Highlanders, finishes the year with an overall record of 7-18. Three of the seven wins, including the one vs. NJIT, came by 3-0 scores in Bucknell's final four matches of the season.
 
NJIT is 11-20 with four matches to be played on the upcoming weekend.
 
Both Bucknell kills leaders had efficient hitting matches. Eastley, a sophomore middle, made just 2 errors to go with her 10 kills in 20 attempts for a .400 hitting percentage. Campbell, a junior middle, made one more error and took two more swings, but still posted a strong .318 hitting percentage.
 
Junior setter Meghan Wetzel triggered the Bison attack with a match-best 32 assists and the winners served 6 aces, half of which came from Eastley.
 
Bucknell did not do much damage at the net on defense, finishing with just 2 total team blocks. On the floor, the Bison got a match-best 20 digs from sophomore libero Kristen Parks.
 
NJIT had one of its worst hitting matches of season, notching 32 kills, but committing 27 attack errors. With Bucknell getting just two blocks, that meant 25 of the errors were unforced, either hit out of bounds or into the net.
 
Nina Vukotic was the kills leader for NJIT, registering 10. Senior Fran Edmondson had 7 kills and only 2 errors, but, excluding her, the rest of the team had 25 kills and 25 errors, a statistic that is all but impossible for a team to overcome.
 
Setter Alyssa Armada collected 29 of NJIT's 32 assists and the Highlanders managed two aces as a team, one each from twin sisters Nina Vukotic and Danica Vukotic.
 
On defense, NJIT actually had one more dig than Bucknell, 43-42. Senior libero Camilla Tinari led with 11 digs, while Edmondson and the Vukotic twins each checked in with 8 digs.
 
The only statistical area in which the Highlanders had a decided edge was in total team blocks, 5.0-to-2.0. Freshman Shani Leacock had a block solo and 3 block assists, while Edmondson added 3 block assists.
 
The first set ended with Bucknell on top 25-18, but there 11 ties and 6 lead changes. The score got to 18-16 for Bucknell with neither team leading by more than two, but the Bison dominated the stretch run, 7-2. Bucknell kills on three of the last four points to close out the frame, with an Eastley kill earning set point.
 
NJIT led briefly in the second set, 2-1 abd 3-2, but Bucknell came back for a 4-3 lead and never trailed the set again. The Bison finished off the second frame on a 6-1 run.
 
The clinching set for victorious Bucknell had 6 ties and 2 lead changes, NJIT built an early 8-5 lead and stayed ahead until 13-13. The teams traded points before an NJIT hitting error put Bucknell on top, 15-14. The Bison never relinquished the lead and used a 6-0 spurt that began with 3 consecutive NJIT errors, one serving and two attacking, to pull ahead 22-15.
 
Danica Vukotic had back-to-back kills to give NJIT some hope at 17-22, but Bucknell's Campbell answered with a kill and the Bison finished off the set and match ending with a Jordan Walker kill and a 25-21 win of the clinching set.
 
Having played its first 31 matches along the East Coast, NJIT will finish off the 2014 season in Phoenix, AZ, where it will compete in a tournament hosted by Grand Canyon University on November 21 and 22.
 
On November 21, Friday, the Highlanders will take on University of Nebraska Omaha and Incarnate Word from San Antonio, TX. On Saturday, NJIT will face UMass Lowell and then host Grand Canyon. The only squad the Highlanders have faced previously is UMass Lowell, which swept the Highlanders, 3-0, on September 27 in Lowell.