WEST ORANGE, N.J.- First-year head coach Amable Martinez secured his first career win after securing FDU's (1-0) win over NJIT (0-1) in an opening day sweep. FDU competed in Day one of the three-day Seton Hall Classic, where they will additionally face Seton Hall and Illinois State by the end of the weekend.
Mila Samardzija highlighted the Knights with a nine kill outing, alongside a team-topping three aces.
The Knights' freshmen made splash plays early, with Samardzija and
Kiah Lopez logging FDU's first two points to take a 2-1 advantage. The teams exchanged points before
Angela Marchetto broke a 5-5 stalemate. Two more errors by the Highlanders allowed the Knights to take an 8-6 lead.
With the Knights holding a 12-11 lead, the Highlanders found a four-point-run to take a 15-12 lead. The trailing Knights responded swiftly, with Lopez spurring on a three-point-burst to tie the contest at 15 each way. From there, the Highlanders put the Knights on the ropes, battling to a 21-17 lead. Samardzija made another play to put the Knights back on the scoreboard. Her effort was followed up with two attaching errors from NJIT and two service aces from
Madeline Joyce, propelling the Knights to a 22-21 lead.
The Highlanders found one more kill in the set, before another kill and two attacking errors ended the contentious set in FDU's favor, 25-22.
With the score tied at 2-2 early on in the second set, Ava DeGuzman dialed up a kill to begin a four-point-run to give the Knights a cushion. From there, the Knights were able to impose their will. Quick bursts of scoring helped the Knights continue to build up a comfortable lead.
Already hanging onto a 19-10 lead, the Knights were able to generate six unanswered points to put an end to the second set. Samardzija, alongside Nora Margenian and
Nina Jasiecka accounted for half of the final points, while solid defensive play from the Knights helped to generate three errors to take the second set 25-10.
To kick off the third set, Samardzija continued her strong debut with two aces to bookend a four-point-run from FDU, with DeGuzman and
Alessia Zampieri finding two kills between aces. After letting up three points to the Highlanders, DeGuzman found three consecutive kills and Marchetto put down an insurance to cap off another four-point-burst from the Knights to lead 8-3.
The scoring evened up, with the two squads exchanging points as FDU held onto their five-point advantage. Two kills from Lopez and an Ace from Scarfone helped FDU separate even further from the Highlanders, as the Knights established a 20-9 lead. DeGuzman, alongside two attacking errors, helped FDU close the door on NJIT, 25-11 in the third set.
The Knights play Seton Hall tomorrow at 3 p.m. Coverage of the game will be livestreamed on Youtube.
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