Rutgers University
Sam Houston State
Rutgers Volleyball Loses to Host Sam Houston State, 3-1
Aug 27 | Women's Volleyball
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (August 26, 2011) – Sophomore Tiffany Regmund (College Station, Texas) – playing about 50 miles from her hometown – continued her stellar play from earlier in the day with 13 kills and junior Alex Jones (Chesapeake, Va.) notched a match-high 15 kills, but Rutgers volleyball fell, 3-1, to Sam Houston State at Johnson Coliseum on Friday night.
The Scarlet Knights drop to 0-2 at the Sam Houston State Invitational, while the Bearkats improve to 2-0. SHSU avenged a 3-1 RU win at the Delaware Invitational last season.
“The whole match was a fight and we did not just roll over after losing the first two sets,” said head coach CJ Werneke after the match. “We certainly made some improvements serve-receive wise and defensively in the final two sets.”
After dropping the first two sets, Rutgers bounced back to win the third, 25-23, behind 13 kills, three blocks and two aces to force a fourth set. However, the Bearkats responded to win the final set, 25-22, and the match.
Senior Kallie Pence (College Station, Texas) – also playing close to home – led RU with a match-high 16 digs, one short of her career-high. Junior Stephanie Zielinski (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) registered 41 assists from her setter position.
The Scarlet Knights will be back in action at 12:30 p.m. ET to face Louisiana Tech (0-1) before going up against Texas – Pan American at 5 p.m. ET to close out the tournament. All matches will be streamed on GoBearkats.com for a charge of $8.95 for the tournament. Sam Houston State will also provide Live Stats on the same website for free.
“I expect us to come out and play with the same amount of effort and focus as we did at the end of the Sam Houston State match,” said Werneke looking forward to Saturday. “We need to try to execute at a higher level at critical moments and put our best foot forward.
“We are taking a lot of positives away from the second match and we hope to continue that into tomorrow.”
For more information on the Rutgers volleyball team, please log on to ScarletKnights.com to find up-to-date news, stats and information. Also follow the program on Twitter at Twitter.com/RUvball and Facebook at Facebook.com/RutgersVolleyball.
