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 Baaba Hughes |
Sept. 28, 2007
NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT women's volleyball team began play in its own NJIT Invitational tournament with a decisive 3-0 win over visiting St. Francis (NY) Friday afternoon in the opening match of the two-day, five-team, eight-match tournament.
NJIT, which picked up its sixth win of the season against the Terriers, has won four of its last six and five of its last eight contests.
The Highlanders won each game of the St. Francis match by successively wider margins. NJIT took game one, 30-23, followed by easier 30-16 and 30-9 decisions in the final two games, respectively.
NJIT made only nine attack errors as a team in the three games and team kills leader Kristy Haeckel had a .368 attack percentage on eight kills, one error and 19 attempts. Agnieszka Pregowska was even more efficient, hitting six kills and one error in nine attempts (.556). Freshman Baaba Hughes had the best hitting match of her rookie season so far, notching seven kills with two errors in 17 attacks for a .294 percentage. Kubra Tanrikulu added seven kills for the Highlanders.
Erica Schultz led NJIT with 14 assists.
The Highlanders dominated the serving game, nailing 17 aces to six for the visiting Terriers. Six different NJIT players had at least one ace, paced by Sabrina Baby, who fired eight.
Baby also led the Highlander floor defense with 16 kills, while Tanrikulu added 11. Haeckel and Pregowska led NJIT's blocking with four apiece.
Jadelyn Castillo had a match-best nine kills for St. Francis and Sarah Bailey had 14 assists. Liliana Rodriguez had a match-high 20 digs, while the Terriers had one team block.
In the day's second match, Utah Valley beat Columbia, 3-1 and St. Francis was playing Quinnipiac in the third match.
The Highlanders will close out Friday's action with a match against Utah Valle, with first serve scheduled for 7 pm Friday.
