HARRISONBURG, VA - The Rutgers volleyball team (2-2) split a pair of matches to finish play at the James Madison Comfort Inn Invitational Aug. 26. The Scarlet Knights lost to Canisius in three games (30-19, 30-26, 31-29) before bouncing back to defeat the host Dukes in five games (30-26, 25-30, 28-30, 30-27, 15-12).

Senior Lora Yankauskas (Paramus, NJ) led the Scarlet Knights against Canisius with 12 kills and 17 digs. Sophomore Kyra Thompson (Tucson, AZ) chipped in 11 kills, and classmate Roxy Calder (Oceanside, CA) had 20 assists.

RU won the first game against the Dukes in the second match of the day 30-26, but fell behind 2-1 after losing games two and three (25-30 and 28-30). But RU would not give up, battling back to win games four and five 30-27 and 15-12. Yankauskas registered her third double-double of the year with 13 digs and a match-high 23 kills. Thompson added 14 kills and 15 digs, while Brittani Rendina (Lisle, IL) collected a team-best 25 digs. Senior Jocelyn Greenwald (Old Tappan, NJ) added 26 assists and 13 digs in the winning effort.

For her efforts, Thompson was named to the All-Tournament Team. In four matches, she averaged 3.56 kills and 3.31 digs per game.

'In the first match against Canisius, I think we played as far from our game as possible and we paid the price for it,' said second-year Rutgers head coach Orlando Gonzalez. 'Give Canisius credit, because they played really well, but we didn't dictate the style of play and it cost us.

'JUM had been steamrolling through the tournament, beating everyone 3-0. We knew we could eliminate some of the bad taste from the first match with a good effort tonight (against JMU). We made a few adjustments, but mainly I though we outworked them, and it paid off for us.'

Rutgers will be back in action Sept. 1-2 at the Temple Tournament against Maine, Kansas and the host Owls.