Rutgers University
Seton Hall
Rutgers Volleyball Captures Pirates, Sweeps Seton Hall 3-0
Oct 15 | Women's Volleyball
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (October 14, 2011) – Rutgers University volleyball took down rival Seton Hall University in a dominating 3-0 performance Friday night at the College Ave Gym. It was the second-straight year the Scarlet Knights downed the Pirates at home in the BIG EAST battle for New Jersey.
Rutgers (8-15, 1-5 BIG EAST) won by set scores of 25-18, 25-21 and 25-22 to improve to 5-4 at home the College Ave Gym this season. RU is now 19-15 all-time against SHU (13-8, 4-2), who had won 10 of 12 coming into the night.
“The focus on detail was great tonight,” said head coach CJ Werneke after the match. “It just clicked for us tonight; we were waiting for this type of performance to happen.”
Sophomore Tiffany Regmund (Bryan, Texas) had one of her best matches of the season, recording a match-high 13 kills on a .226 hitting percentage for the night. Freshman Sofi Cucuz (Crown Point, Ind.) added eight kills for the Scarlet Knights who hit at a .250 clip – the highest percentage in a BIG EAST match this season.
Junior setter Stephanie Zielinski (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) continued her strong play all over the court, notching her 11th double-double of the season with 27 assists and 15 digs. Classmate Kelsey Ross (Orinda, Calif.) – in her second start of the season – tallied 10 digs to help the stingy RU defense hold down one of the more potent attacks in the conference.
“I don’t think there are words to describe how awesome tonight’s win was,” said senior Hannah Curtis (Wasilla, Alaska), who had eight kills and three blocks. “I think this game has been marked on our calendars since we beat them last year. We were really looking forward to playing them tonight.”
Rutgers kept the momentum throughout the match, never trailing by more than three points in a set to keep the pressure on the visiting Pirates.
“I think we match up well with Seton Hall and we brought a lot of attention to detail tonight,” said Werneke reiterated. “It is a sweet, sweet victory. We put this match on our calendars and winning it is one of our goals. We don’t shy away from them. It is a big victory for us.”
Rutgers will look to carry the emotion from the win into next week, traveling to Syracuse (Oct. 21) and Marquette (Oct. 23) to continue BIG EAST play.
