NEWARK, N.J. - For the second time this year, Binghamton volleyball (11-12, 5-3 America East) defeats NJIT (4-19, 0-7 America East) in five sets (25-27, 25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 15-9) to improve to 5-3 in the AE standings.

After setting a career high in kills against UAlbany on Friday (21), Viktoria Dimitrova reset her career best with 22 kills against the Highlanders. She's the first Bearcat to garner back-to-back 20+ kill games since Tsvetelina Ilieva a season ago (11/22/24-12/04/24).

Regan Kadel also comes away with a huge performance against the Highlanders. After a career-high 52 assists in the win over UAlbany on Friday, the sophomore setter provided 60 assists in the victory over NJIT. She's the first Bearcat to have 60 assists in a game since Lottie Scully (64, 10/30/2022).

"Once again, this was a full team effort." head coach Allie Yaeger said. "NJIT played great defense against us today but we were able to control the serve/serve receive game." 

Briana Binagi and Celeste Ocampo totaled five of Binghamton's eight aces in the match, compared to NJIT's five.

The Highlanders got out early in the opening set, but Hannah Olmstead struck down a couple of kills and a solo block to tie the game at 10 apiece. The Highlanders put together a string of points that gave them a 17-11 lead. Binghamton answered with a run of their own, going on a 6-0 run to tie the game back up at 17. The two sides went back-and-forth for the remainder of the set, but the Highlanders closed it out, taking the set 27-25.

NJIT started the second set outgaining Binghamton, going up 11-7 and forcing Binghamton to take an early timeout. The Bearcats came out of the timeout to go on a 9-3 stretch and take the lead 16-14. Kadel provided back-to-back service aces and assisted on the last three points to help the Bearcats even the match with a 25-19 set two victory

The third set saw a close battle early on, as neither team was able to pull away from the other. A strong kill from freshman Maya Coblentz-Brown gave the Bearcats the momentum that saw them go on a 5-2 run, giving them a 20-17 lead. NJIT closed the gap back to one, but Binghamton would go on to score four of the last five points in the set to win 25-21 and claim a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Highlanders bounced back in the fourth set, getting out to an early 10-5 lead. Binghamton began to gain momentum with Briana Binagic at the service, scoring an ace and helping the Bearcats tack on five straight points and go on a 9-3 run to give Binghamton a 15-14 lead. The Highlanders were able to overcome Binghamton's momentum and close out the fourth 25-22 to force a fifth and final set.

Francesca Pierdonati delivered an ace to get Binghamton out to a 3-0 lead to start the deciding set. Dimitrova took over in the fifth set with three consecutive kills to put the Bearcats on top 6-2. Binghamton stayed in control and would go on to close out the set and match with a 15-9 final score in the fifth set. This is the Bearcats' second straight AE win and their fourth win in their last five matches.

Coach Yaeger concluded her thoughts with "For the entire weekend, everyone stepped up when they had to and I could not be more proud of this team.".

Binghamton will return to action for senior day and their final home contest of the regular season against Bryant (14-11, 5-3 America East) on Friday, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m.

Hinman, Howard & Katell, LLP is the presenting sponsor of Bearcats Volleyball.