This past weekend, Rowan volleyball (5-3, 0-0 New Jersey Athletic Conference) traveled to Aston, Pennsylvania, and picked up two wins against Cedar Crest (3-4, 0-0 United East Conference) and Neumann (4-6, 0-0 Atlantic East Conference) in their three-match stint at the Neumann Invitational.

For Senior, Brooke Adams, the road trip saw her adding her name once again to the Rowan Volleyball record books.

In the team’s second matchup of the Invitational against Ursinus, Adams became Rowan Volleyball’s all-time assist leader with 3,485 career assists, passing the previous record of 3,424 held by Joelle McNulty. 

The previous week in the Profs’ home match against Drew, Adams set a new single-match record with 12 aces, surpassing the prior record of 10. 

“She’s grinded over the past couple years and she’s worked really hard to get to where she is. Just seeing how she’s grown over the past four years as a setter, with her decision making and her location and all those things,” Head Coach, Deana Jespersen said. “That assist record is a big deal because of the numbers, but you don’t get that unless you’re able to put up a good ball that your hitters can hit. It’s been really cool to see how she’s matured, her leadership out there on the court, and how much she’s enjoying the game this year. It’s been really fun to watch her play this year.”

In the team’s one and only match on Friday, Sept. 13, against Cedar Crest, the Profs hit over .300 with a 50-11-111 hitting line to take down the Falcons 3-1 (20-25, 25-10, 25-14, 25-16).

After dropping the first set to Cedar Crest, the Profs jumped out to a sizable lead in the second. Back-to-back aces from Cooper put the team up 11-4 and an eight-point run later in the set tied things up 1-1.

The Profs won the third set with a 16-4 run to break up a 9-9 tie, followed by an 8-2 outburst in the fourth that secured a win over the Falcons.

Offensively, the team had many contributors with Jena Kaul delivering a match-high 14 kills followed by rookie Ava Best (10), Maya Iovacchini (9), and Hutton Cordrey (8). 

The team totaled 16 aces on the evening, with NJAC Defensive Player of the Week Vanessa Hutchinson leading with five and both Adams and Gabriella Cooper contributing four.

 “Offensively, we are so rounded. It’s easier to win games when you’ve got that many threats and have that many people that could put the ball away,” Jespersen said. “With Brooke dishing out the ball and distributing that ball in different areas to different players and then they’re all and they’re all having success, it makes it hard for the other team to know who to defend against. So, we have to keep doing that and getting better at making sure that we keep those numbers where they are, because we do have a lot of weapons, and we want to make sure that we use them all so that we can have success.”

To go along with the Profs’ strong offensive performance, Adams finished the match with 46 assists, pushing her closer to the program record she would inevitably break the next day against Ursinus.

Despite winning the first two sets against Ursinus, the Profs fell to the Bears 3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-12). They finished those first two sets with 30 kills and six errors.

The Profs finished the match with 56 kills, with Kaul (14), Ciara Bradley (10), and Cordrey (10) all reaching double figures.

Adams’, who also finished the night with five digs and four aces, match total of 45 assists against Ursinus led to her record-breaking evening at the Invitational. She reflects on how special it is to now be Rowan Volleyball’s all-time assists leader.

“It feels pretty great. This has been my goal since freshman year and after that year when I saw what I could do, I really wanted to break the record,” Adams said. “It feels really good and obviously I can’t get assists unless my teammate gets kills so all the hitters I’ve had over the last three years have really helped me out with that. It hasn’t just been me.”

For the third and final matchup on Saturday, Sept. 14, against Neumann, the Profs had a 2-0 heading into the third set. After being up 15-7, the Knights rallied back to flip the score to 23-21 in favor of Neumann. Now down 24-22, the Profs scored four points in a row to secure a sweep of Neumann in their final game.

Kaul recorded a game-best 13 kills and 11 digs to get her first double-double of the season.

After a strong outing at the Knights Invitational, the Profs are set to play five games in the next week, including another three-match tournament. Jespersen says that the lengthy week ahead will be a good test for her team.

“We have five matches in the next week that are going to be super, super tough, and none of them are going to be an easy win. I think we’re probably the underdog in quite a few of them,” Jespersen said. “It’s just a game that we enjoy and have fun with and we want to keep getting better. And we know that the challenge is only going to help us for the rest of the season.”

The Profs next travel to Grantham, Pennsylvania, for the Messiah Quad to face Gettysburg College on Friday, Sept. 20, followed by Courtland and Messiah on Saturday, Sept. 21.

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