CENTER VALLEY, Penn. (Aug. 31, 2018) –
David Gurst entered his fourth season at Rutgers University-Camden tied for the most coaching victories in program history.
Gurst now stands alone after his Scarlet Raptors won their second match of the day with a sweep of Baruch College at the season-opening DeSales University Invitational.
Gurst's 46th career win came during a 25-21, 27-25, 25-10 victory against Baruch after the Raptors dropped their first match of the season, 12-25, 25-21, 13-25, 22-25, against host DeSales earlier in the day.
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Saturday with two more matches at the DeSales Invitational, playing Washington College (Maryland) at 10 a.m. and Colby-Sawyer College at 12 p.m. The Scarlet Raptors open their home season Tuesday with a 7 p.m. non-conference match against Ursinus College.
DeSales 3, Rutgers-Camden 1
The Bulldogs won the final two sets of the match after the two teams split the opening two sets. In Rutgers-Camden's second-set win, the Scarlet Raptors broke an 18-18 tie with six straight points before posting their 25-21 win.
Junior
Jordan Erskine paced the Scarlet Raptors with 10 kills, while juniors
Jamie Mulligan and
Morgan Mulligan added nine and eight kills, respectively. A pair of freshmen setters,
Brinn Hassan and
Kayla Benesz, let the way with 16 and 14 assists, respectively. Hassan added two service aces.
Freshman
Ava D'Ambrosio collected one solo block and three assisted blocks, while
Morgan Mulligan assisted on three blocks. Sophomore
Ashley Newman led the way with 14 digs, while
Morgan Mulligan collected nine, freshman
Savannah Hayes added seven and Benesz notched six.
Freshman
Nicole Long contributed five kills, two assisted blocks and two digs.
Rutgers-Camden 3, Baruch 0
The Scarlet Raptors bounced back in their second match of the day, sweeping Baruch for Gurst's record-setting win.
Rutgers-Camden collected 36 kills and hit .333 as a team, led by
Jamie Mulligan, who had 11 kills and only two errors in 19 attempts for a .474 hitting percentage. Her sister Morgan had six kills and hit .333, while Erskine added five kills and a .364 hitting percentage.
Benesz notched 14 assists and Hassan added 12 assists and a team-high five service aces. Freshman
Morgan Fox collected three aces
Hayes had 12 of the Raptors' 36 digs.
