MONTCLAIR STATE ROLLS PAST RUTGERS-NEWARK, 3-0

Montclair, NJ (9/30/08) – Junior outside hitter Karen Martin (Sicklerville, NJ / Washington Township) collected nine kills while sophomore Devon Johnston (Moorestown, NJ / Moorestown) and junior Christine Toskovich (Garfield, NJ / Garfield) had six and five, respectively as Montclair State rolled past Rutgers-Newark, 3-0 in NJAC volleyball action at the MSU Student Recreation Center on Tuesday.

Junior Kara Burnham (Moorestown, NJ / Moorestown) added five kills as the Red Hawks improved to 11-6 on the season, 3-1 in the NJAC with their second straight win taking the match, 25-5, 25-7 and 25-4.

Junior setter Christina Francisco ( West Orange, NJ / West Orange) had three assists and four digs for the Scarlet Raiders, who fell to 1-15 overall, 1-3 in the NJAC

MSU raced out to a 6-0 lead in the first set as Kristen Ruggieri ( Hillsdale, NJ / Pascack Valley) served the first six points, three coming on aces. After Rutgers-Newark got the serve on kill by Na-Keta Michael ( Newark, NJ / West Side), MSU would reel off the next seven points to take a 14-1 lead. Johnston served each point of the run as the Scarlet Raiders committed four errors. An ace from Toskovich would make the score 23-3 and following a Toni Moppert (Woodcliff Lake, NJ / Pascack Hills) kill, Burnham gave MSU set-point with her second kill. Rutgers-Newark held off as Rose Anna Beljour ( Hackensack, NJ / Hackensack) had a kill, but the Scarlet Raiders eighth hitting error of the set gave Montclair a 1-0 lead.

The second set was nearly a carbon copy of the first as Johnston’s serving helped MSU to a 7-1 lead. Martin and Toskovich each had three kills in the set while Burnham and Johnson had two apiece as the Red Hawks hit .526 in the 25-7 win to take a two-set lead.

Montclair finished off the match in the third set as the Red Hawks recorded 16 of the first 17 points, including 13 straight from Johnston, who had three service aces with Martin recording adding five kills.

Ruggieri finished with 20 assists, four service aces and six digs as the Red Hawks finished the match with a .531 hitting percentage (30-4-49). Johnston and Toskovich had four and three, respectively. Libero Meghan Stevens ( Woodcliff Lake, NJ / Pascack Hills) had a match-high 13 digs.

Montclair State returns to the court on Friday, October 3 when they compete at the Ducks Invitational at Stevens. MSU will face Cortland and St. Mary’s (MD) in Friday’s pool play. Rutgers-Newark is off until Tuesday, October 7 as the Scarlet Raiders head to Union for a 7:00 pm matchup with Kean University.