UNION, N.J. (Nov. 2, 2021) – The Rutgers University-Camden volleyball team stormed its way into the New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs, earning the fifth seed and finishing the regular season with a 20-8 record and a six-match winning streak.
 
The NJAC playoff stay only lasted one match, however, as fourth-seeded Kean University swept the Scarlet Raptors, 3-0, in a quarterfinal match here Tuesday night.
 
Kean won by scores of 25-21, 25-13 and 25-20 to advance to the NJAC semifinals. The Cougars (16-11) will play at top seed Rowan University on Thursday at 7 p.m.
 
Rutgers-Camden, which has now lost its last 12 matches against Kean, falls to 20-9. The Scarlet Raptors look to extend their season with a berth in the ECAC tournament.
 
With the Scarlet Raptors leading, 19-16, in the opening set, the Cougars ran off nine of the next 11 points to notch the win. After taking a 22-21 lead, the Cougars closed out the win on three straight kills, including back-to-back kills  by Morgan Hall and the set-clinching kill by Taylor Micheaux.
 
The second set was a tight affair with the Raptors leading, 8-6, before the Cougars ran off the next 11 points to turn the set into a runaway. Hall had four service aces and Kayla Thornton had three kills in that run.
 
In the third set, the teams battled to a 19-19 deadlock before Kean put on a late surge to wrap up the set and the match. Thornton had two straight kills and Hall added an ace to give the home team a 22-19 lead. After a kill by the Raptors' Erica Nebrich, Kean scored the last three points on a kill by Thornton and a pair of Raptor attack errors.
 
Rutgers-Camden received eight kills from sophomore Isabella Choice, while fellow sophomores Nebrich and Kaliyah Moss added seven apiece. Sophomore Dyamond Free and senior Devyn Cobb added four and three kills, respectively.
 
Senior Brinn Hassan delivered 21 assists and two aces, while senior Morgan Fox had four assists and a team-high 12 digs. Moss had 11 digs, Hassan notched eight digs and senior Haley Novak delivered six.
 
Choice and Cobb both collected two blocks.