Full 2014 Women's Volleyball Schedule


NEWARK, NJ—A new era of NJIT women's volleyball begins this weekend when the Highlanders, under new head coach Peter Volkert, open their 2014 season on Friday, August 29 in the La Salle Invitational.
 
That two-day, four-match tournament in Philadelphia will see NJIT play twice on Friday (10 am vs. Coppin State and 7 pm vs. host La Salle) and then two more on Saturday (9 am vs. Manhattan and 2 pm vs. Loyola of Maryland).
 
Indeed, the early schedule features three more away tournaments through September 20. After the opening trip to La Salle, NJIT will be in tournaments at St. Francis Brooklyn (September 5 and 6 with the hosts, plus Manhattan and Hofstra); at Rhode Island (September 12 and 13 with host URI, Rutgers, and Cincinnati); and finally, at Central Connecticut (September 19 and 20 with CCSU, Providence, and Hartford).
 
Sprinkled in with that early slate of tournaments is the home opener September 3 at 7 pm vs. Saint Peter's and then a short road trip to Teaneck, NJ, for a visit to Fairleigh Dickinson on September 17 at 7 pm.
 
The tournaments will be over by the third weekend in September, but the traveling won't be. Coming out of the final tournament at Central Connecticut, the Highlanders will play five consecutive single road matches, giving them 19 of their first 20 matches either on the other team's floor or a neutral floor.
 
Beginning on October 11, however, NJIT will play eight of 10 matches in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. The visitor on October 11 will be Robert Morris, with Lehigh (October 18), Iona (October 21), Delaware State (October 24), Hampton (October 31), a rematch with FDU (November 5), and a Senior Night contest vs. Coppin State (November 7), and a visit from Howard (November 14) closing out the home part of the schedule. Mixed in with all the home dates is a trip to Army (October 15) and one to Rider in Lawrenceville, NJ (October 29).
 
The season closes with a trip to Bucknell (November 15) and then a flight to Phoenix for the Grand Canyon University tournament on November 21 and 22.
 
NJIT, which is playing its second season as a Division I Independent since the demise of the old Great West Conference, will get a sampling of competition from a variety of conference in the region.
 
The first opponent, Coppin State, plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference as do other 2014 NJIT foes Delaware State, Hampton, and Howard. La Salle and Rhode Island play in the Atlantic 10 Conference, where the new Highlander chief, Peter Volkert, guided Fordham from 2004 through 2012.
 
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, where Volkert was head coach of Manhattan (1997 to 2003) and assistant at Iona (2013), supplies Manhattan, Saint Peter's, Iona, and Rider to this year's NJIT slate. At Manhattan, Volkert enjoyed great success, piloting the Jaspers to three postseason berths in the NCAA Division I Tournament, as he won a total of 132 matches in seven seasons. In his one year on the Iona staff, the Gaels had their best conference record since the MAAC began a round robin volleyball schedule in 1991.
 
Patriot League opponents for the Highlanders are Loyola, Lafayette, Army, Lehigh, and Bucknell, while the Northeast Conference puts St. Francis Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson, Central Connecticut, and Robert Morris on the NJIT schedule.
 
America East Conference foes are: UMass Lowell, Hartford, and New Hampshire. Hofstra, which is in the St. Francis tournament, is part of the Colonial Athletic Association.
 
Rutgers, Providence, and Cincinnati, all part of the old Big East Conference until a couple of years ago, have moved on. Rutgers is a first-year member of the Big Ten Conference; Providence, a founding member of the Big East Conference is still there; and Cincinnati is part of the American Athletic Conference, which began play last season.
 
NJIT went 7-15 in 2013 as a Division I Independent and Volkert is taking the helm with a proven track record of success, with 348 wins as head coach at three previous institutions (Division II Pace, Manhattan, and Fordham).
 
At this point, he is emphasizing the process, knowing his formula has worked in the past.
 
"The first thing is we want to put a positive process in place and match that with maximum effort," said the coach when he took over the Highlander program in February this year. "After that, we will give the players the tools to be in the right place at the right time on both offense and defense. If we do that, the team will get positive results."
 
He has assembled an impressive assistant coaching staff that includes full-time assistant Ariel Scott, longtime college and club coach and NJIT grad Anthony Valbrun, and volunteer assistant Alicja Pawelec.
 
Both Scott and Pawelec completed their own college playing careers last season. Widely hailed as one of the greatest girls volleyball players in New Jersey high school history, Scott was a four-year star at Penn State, which won the NCAA championship following her freshman and senior seasons. She was a three-time All-America, leading Penn State to the Big Ten title in each of her last three seasons. She was All-Big Ten each of those years and Big Ten Player of the Year in 2012.
 
Valbrun, who played for his native Haiti in international competition, was a two-year starter for the NJIT men's volleyball team and he was head coach of the NJIT women and assistant coach of the NJIT men a little more than a decade ago. As a women's head coach, he guided Division II Bloomfield to four consecutive conference tournament berths and he is active in the club volleyball ranks in New Jersey.
 
Pawelec, who was coached by Volkert in her senior year at Iona, is third on that school's career kills list. She was consensus Queens (NY) high school player of the year after both her junior and senior years.
 
The roster for the 2014 Highlanders includes 10 players who were on the 2013 team along with four freshmen.
 
Senior Fran Edmondson, the 2013-14 Female Athlete of the Year for the entire Highlander athletics program, has proven herself to be a versatile player in her two-year NJIT career. The New Zealand native, a hitter in her first season, led the team in assists by a wide margin (403, more than twice the total of the next player on the list) and she also had 116 kills, mostly as a hitter last year. She was second in blocks, third in digs, and first in aces.
 
Digs leader Katie Goswick, the starting libero in 2013, is back, along with junior twins Danica and Nina Vukotic. Danica was first-team All-Great West in 2012, the last season for that conference.
 
Valerie Carroll has been an important blocker for the team for each of the previous two seasons and is looking to build on that success in her senior season.
 
Camilla Tinari has shown flashes of her skill throughout her first three seasons, but illness and injury have hounded her in two of her three seasons. As a freshman in 2011, she was in just 13 matches before a season-ending illness. She played every match in 2012 and was second on the team in kills and digs. Last year, she played in five matches before a knee injury that required surgery ended her junior season.
 
The four new players come from the region (libero Vanessa Marques from Long Island); the Midwest (setter Alyssa Armada from Chicago, a strong area nationally for girls volleyball); the Rocky Mountain region (Tess Albyn, a 6-foot hitter from Colorado), and overseas (Kat Janssen, a 6-2 right side hitter from Australia, where she was a regular choice on her age group National Team).