NEW BRITAIN, CT—Bucknell swept NJIT 3-0 on the opening day of the 2015 women's volleyball season, as the teams met on the first day of season Friday night in the Blue Devil Classic hosted by Central Connecticut.
 
It was the season's first match for each team and the Bison of Bucknell scored wins of 25-19, 25-15, and 25-23 to sweep the match.
 
Bucknell's attack leader was senior Karen Campbell, who notched 11 kills and made just one error in 16 attempts for an impressive .625 hitting percentage. Sophomore Hailey Stout picked up nine kills and freshmen Blake Buccholz and Steph Occhiogrosso each added nine kills. Occhiogroso, like Campbell made just one attack error in the match.
 
Meghan Wentzel, Bucknell's senior setter, fed her teammates for a match-leading 30 assists and the Bison served four aces, two by sophomore Jenna Slusar.
 
On defense, Buchholz led the way on the floor with 11 digs, while Stout had 10 and Occhiograsso added nine. At the net, Campbell's two block assists led victorious Bucknell.
 
NJIT's attack was less diverse than Bucknell's in terms of kills distribution. Freshman Marija Tosic and senior Danica Vukotic each had 11 kills to share match honors in that department, but the rest of the NJIT team managed only 11 more kills combined.
 
Emily Krachenfels, NJIT's freshman setter, collected 27 assists in her college debut. The Highlanders had three service aces in the match, one each for Tess Albyn, Danica Vukotic, and Nina Vukotic.
 
Danica and freshman Adriana Nieto were the team digs leaders with 10 each and newcomer Anneka Harris had two block assists, while Nina Vukotic had a block assist and a block solo.
 
NJIT scored the first point of the night, but quickly fell into a deep 2-10 hole and did not get closer than six points (16-22) the rest of the set before losing 19-25.
 
Bucknell grabbed the first four points of the second set, but NJIT came back to trail 5-6 before Bucknell spurted back into a comfortable lead and then coasted to a 25-15 win.
 
The best showing for the Highlanders came in the third set when they fought back from being down 9-13 to take a late lead, 22-19 after a kill by Tosic. However, Bucknell regrouped to claim six of the final seven points to score a 25-23 win in the set and a 3-0 win in the match.
 
Both teams will continue Saturday in the four team round robin tournament. The Highlanders will take on Fairfield in scheduled 1:30 pm start and then close out the tournament with a 6:30 pm match against host Central Connecticut.