PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Sept. 8, 2022) – The Rutgers University-Camden volleyball team played its home-away-from-home opener here Thursday night and the Scarlet Raptors' "home" court was a fittingly historic scene for an historic night.
 
Playing at the fabled Palestra in Philadelphia due to their home court being used for an on-campus event, the Raptors saw senior setter Brinn Hassan become only the second player in program history to reach 2,000 career assists, but Rutgers-Camden dropped a four-set match against Ursinus, 21-25, 25-18, 16-25 and 24-26.
 
The Bears improve to 5-0, while the Scarlet Raptors fall to 1-3.
 
Ursinus won the opening set, 25-21, before Rutgers-Camden bounced back to knot the match with a 25-18 victory in the second set. It was the first set the Bears lost all season after opening the year with four consecutive 3-0 match victories.

Ursinus won the final two sets, but not before Hassan made program history at the historic Palestra. Hassan's 19th assist of the night, off a kill by Dyamond Free in the fourth set, was the 2,000th of her illustrious career. The play gave Rutgers-Camden a 17-14 lead at the time, and helped her join Stephanie Miller (2009-12) as the lone Raptors in the 2,000-assist club. Miller is the program's all-time leader with 2,692.
 
Hassan finished the night with 25 assists to hike her career total to 2,006.
 
Junior Erica Nebrich led the Scarlet Raptors with 11 kills, while Free added nine. Senior Morgan Fox and freshman Bella Craig collected 12 and eight digs, respectively, while both adding two aces. Senior Haley Novak notched six digs and three aces. Junior Isabella Choice had five block assists and six kills.
 
For Ursinus, sophomore Caroline Sherman and senior Katie Cressman collected 15 and 14 kills, respectively. Sophomore Rachel Bernard netted 24 assists and five aces, while sophomore Emma Illovsky had 16 digs.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Tuesday for its first on-campus home match. The Raptors will entertain Rowan University in a New Jersey Athletic Conference battle at 7 p.m.