Senior Day Interview

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NEWARK, NJ—Visiting North Florida came out ahead of NJIT in two hard-fought sets before dominating the third set in a 3-0 victory over the Highlanders Friday night in Atlantic Sun Conference women's volleyball.
 
The Ospreys, now 5-6 in the A-Sun and 19-9 overall, took the first two sets 25-19 and 25-21 and then clinched the match with a 25-8 third-set win over NJIT (1-10 A-Sun, 6-22 overall).
 
Three players paced the UNF attack, topped by Carina Hoff's match-best nine kills. The junior committed just one hitting error in 13 swings for a .615 attack percentage. Katarina Raicevic (8 kills) and Ambre Desaulnay (7 kills) followed Hoff. Desaulnay, like Hoff, had just one hitting error and Raicevic had only three miscues.
 
The Ospreys got near-equal production from two setters, as Abby Fesl had 16 assists and Carinne Turner added 15 assists. Freshman Ashley LaBorde served three of her team's four aces.
 
On defense, LaBorde, the UNF libero, had a match-best nine digs, followed by eight for Desaulnay. Erin Edwards of the Ospreys was the top blocker with six individual blocks (2 block solos, 4 block assists).
 
NJIT's top hitters are all from Serbia—senior Danica Vukotic (7 kills), her twin sister Nina Vukotic (6 kills) and freshman Marija Tosic (6 kills).
 
Sophomore setter Alyssa Armada topped the Highlanders with 19 assists and she added seven digs on defense, one dig behind leader Adriana Nieto's team-best eight digs. Tess Albyn had four block assists to pace the Highlanders in that department.
 
The match saw four ties in each of the first two sets with two lead changes in the opening set and three more in the second set, while North Florida led the entire third set.
 
UNF opened a lead as big as three points (8-5) early in the first set, but the Highlanders came back to forge a 9-9 tie. The visitors used a 6-2 spurt to extend a 14-12 lead to 20-14, but the Highlanders fought back to 19-22. The Ospreys then sealed the win by finishing the set 3-0.
 
NJIT was strong early in the second set, taking leads of 4-1 and 5-2 before North Florida came back to tie 6-6 and continued to surge, using a 6-1 run to grab a 10-7 advantage.
 
Down 9-12, the Highlanders ran off five unanswered points to reclaim the lead, 14-12.The Highlanders kept the lead and were on top 17-15 before the Ospreys scored six in a row for a 21-17 edge. Anneka Harris broke the run with a kill for NJIT, but UNF resumed and scored three more for a 24-18 lead. The Highlanders responded with a 3-0 run of their own to get the deficit down to 24-21, but it was too late to come all the way back and Morgan Van Alstine's kill clinched the set for North Florida.
 
The teams took the traditional 10-minute break after the second set and nothing seemed amiss for the Highlanders early, as they trailed 5-7 less than a third of the way to the end of the frame. However, the Highlanders managed just three more points the rest of the set, which ended with North Florida scoring 18 of the last 21 points, including a 9-0 to finish.
 
NJIT recognized five student-athletes in pre-match Senior Night ceremonies. They were: Katherine Gerton, Grace Gao, Danica Vukotic, Nina Vukotic, and Shani Leacock.
 
The Highlanders have one home match remaining on the 2015 schedule. They will host Jacksonville in another A-Sun contest on Sunday at noon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.