The New York University women's volleyball team opened play at the New York Region Challenge, which is being hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on Friday and Saturday, November 1-2, in Rochester, NY.
The Violets (22-6) faced Fredonia St. University in their first match on Friday before facing host RIT in the second.
NYU swept the Blue Devils (10-17) by scores of 25-22, 15-15, 25-18 in the opener. The Violets only trailed once in the entire match, and that came early in the first set.
Haley Holz (Palatine, IL /Palatine) led the Violets with nine kills.
Nicole Dao (Bethesda, MD/The Academy of Holy Cross) had 22 assists and
Veronica Johnson (Santa Monica, CA/Santa Monica) added nine.
Caroline Rapp (Boynton Beach, FL/American Heritage School) and
Jacqueline Kupeli (Danville, CA/Monte Vista) each recorded 10 digs for NYU, with Dao contributing nine.
"Today was a total collective team effort," said Head Coach
Andrew Brown. "It was great to see how far the team has come this season."
NYU earned a four-set victory over RIT (17-10) by scores of 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, and 32-30 in the nightcap. Dao tallied 39 assists while Kupeli added five in the effort.
Maddie DeJong (Houston, TX/Second Baptist School) led the way for NYU with 18 kills while
Abby Ausmus (San Diego, CA/La Jolla Country Day School) totaled 16. Kupeli added to her stellar performance with 16 digs.
"Today we had a ton of adversity from travel and in-game adjustments," added Brown. "It was great to see how we attacked those challenges and grew as a program."
The Violets will return to action on Saturday when they close out the New York Region Challenge with matches against SUNY Cortland at 11:00am and Nazareth College at 1:00pm.
More information on Friday's matches against Fredonia and RIT can be accessed in the box scores.(
Fredonia Box score/
RIT Box Score)
