BALTIMORE -- The UMBC Volleyball team extended its win streak to seven with a sweep of visiting NJIT (25-16, 25-21, 25-11) on Sunday afternoon at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.
It was the fifth consecutive sweep for UMBC (12-10, 7-0 AE), which held opponents to under 20 points for 11-straight sets before NJIT (1-18, 0-6 AE) ended the streak in the second.
Mia Bilusic (Zagreb, Croatia) finished with a match-best 12 kills after a sensational final set in which she had seven kills on .600 hitting. Grace Rigsbee (Suwanee, Ga.) added 11 kills on .381 hitting with three blocks while juinor setter Andjelija Draskovic (Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia) finished with 33 assists, a match-high 13 digs, three aces and a block.
In the first set, it was tight until Mila Ilieva (Vidin, Bulgaria) helped spark a big run with three kills on no-errors to get the offense going, while Rigsbee added five kills of her own. The Retrievers used four blocks, three from Beste Ayhan (Istanbul, Turkey), to keep the Highlander offense at bay.
UMBC led wire-to-wire in the second set, but it was tight as NJIT closed the deficit to one on multiple occasions. Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) had one of her six kills to extend the lead back to two, but hte Highlanders would close it back to two twice more at 22-20 and 23-21, which led to a UMBC timeout. NJIT would get an attack error and Ilieva would get a kill to give the set to the Retrievers.
The fourth set started with UMBC up 4-0, but NJIT would eventually close the gap to 6-4. The Retrievers would then go on a huge 16-4 run to essentially put the match away. Kira Givans (Sacramento, Calif.) and Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) each came off the bench in the third to add a kill.
UMBC travels to upstate New York for a pair of matches next weekend. First, a championship rematch at UAlbany on Friday night, followed by a Sunday matinee at Binghamton.
