The New York University women's volleyball team swept two more matches to win the New York State Upstate Regional Challenge hosted by Nazareth College on Sunday, October 31, in Rochester, NY.

“This was another great weekend for us,” said interim head coach Chris Pinto.  “The girls really proved our dominance in the New York region this season.”

The Violets (32-4), currently ranked #15 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 Poll, opened the day with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-16) win over St. Lawrence University (22-10).

Leading the offense was All-Tournament member Kendyl Dunn, who tallied a match-high 14 kills while hitting .538 with three blocks and a service ace.

Also in double-digits on offense for NYU was fellow All-Tournament member Sally Downs, who notched 10 kills and hit a team-best .588 with two blocks and a service ace.

On defense, Alexis Schwartz led all players with 15 digs while Rachel Sawyer added 13.

For the Saints, Liz Grogan recorded nine kills and Katie Prue added 14 digs.

In the Violets' final match of the tournament, the team completed its perfect weekend by sweeping the Rochester Institute of Technology (25-18, 28-26, 25-16).

Downs led the way on offense in the match, putting down 13 kills and hitting .391 with six blocks and a service ace.  For the weekend, Downs tallied 42 kills and hit .536 with four service aces and 12 blocks.

Dunn was again in double-digits as well, adding 12 kills while hitting .440 with five digs and three blocks.  Over the course of the weekend, Dunn led the team with 45 kills and hit .419 with 10 blocks.

On defense, Natalie Fernandez led the Violets with 11 digs.

Schwartz and Sawyer both set NYU defensive records.  Schwartz put up seven digs in the match to set the NYU single-season rally-scoring record for digs in a season with 476. 

Sawyer added three digs, bringing her season total to 401.  She became the first NYU player ever to record 400 or more digs in all four seasons of her career.  Sawyer also passed the 1,700 career dig mark and currently has 1,712.

For the Tigers, Jessica Schaffer tallied 12 kills while Megan Henriksen and Schaffer both added 11 digs.

The Violets return to action next weekend when they travel to Cleveland, OH, to take part in the UAA Volleyball Championship hosted by Case Western Reserve University.  NYU, which earned the #2 seed during round robin play, will play #7 Brandeis University and #6 Carnegie Mellon University on Friday, November 5, and #3 Washington University on Saturday, November 6.

“We're looking forward to getting back to UAA play,” Pinto said.  “It's going to be a fun and exciting weekend.”