Union, NJ – The women's volleyball team post a 1-3 record over two days of action at the North Jersey Challenge Tournament hosted by Kean University. After being swept on the first day of action by University of Northwestern (MN) and Kean, the Hawks salvaged a win on Saturday against Scranton after falling to St. John Fisher College. Their record now stands at 9-13 overall.
 
Game 1 – University of Northwestern (MN) – Loss (25-12, 25-10, 25-8)
The Hawks struggled to get their offense going from the start. They registered just 11 kills as a team. Kylie Hurst had a team high three kills and 11 digs while Summer Magliochetti posted nine assists in the loss.
 
Game 2 – Kean – Loss (25-23, 26-24, 25-18, 25-20, 15-12)
In a tightly contested five-set match, the Purple and Gold came out firing on all cylinders against Kean. Three tallied career highs with Hurst posting 22 kills with just five errors while Mariam Ouattara hammered home 16 kills and Isabelle Lawrence chipped in with 13. Sunghee Cho collected 22 digs while Justine Smith recorded a career high 55 assists.
 
The Purple and Gold won the first two, hard fought sets in similar fashion. Finding themselves down by one in the late stages, Hunter rallied and scored three unanswered points to steal the set victories to go up 2-0. However, they were unable to put the nail in the coffin, falling in the next two sets to force a fifth and final set. There, Kean rallied to break a 12-12 tie to serve Hunter their second loss of the day.
 
Game 3 – St. John Fisher – Loss (25-22, 25-22, 25-20)
It was an even keeled affair with both teams having similar offensive statistics. Despite 33 team kills, the Hawks were unable to snag a set victory. They were knotted at 21 in the first, but were outscored 4-1 over the final five points. It was a similar story in the final two sets with the Purple and Gold keeping close through the latter stages of the set, but unable to reach 25 points.
 
Game 4 – Scranton – Win (19-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-21, 16-14)
Hunter came away with a five-set, come-from-behind victory to close out the Tournament. Despite falling behind two sets to none, the team dug deep and rallied to take the ensuing three sets. Hurst, Lawrence, Ouattara and Curran Murray combined for 50 of the team's 59 kills while Smith amassed 51 assists. Defensively, they totaled 10 block assists, three solo blocks and 69 digs.
 
A kill by Ouattara capped the needed 25^th point for a third set win while Kendra Moore hammered home the final point in the fourth to even the playing field at 2-2. In the fifth, after being tied at 14 all, back-to-back kills from Lawrence and Murray sealed the deal for the match win.
 
For her efforts, Smith was named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
The team returns to action on Tuesday, October 22 when they take on their CUNYAC rivals Baruch College on the Bearcat's home court at 7pm.