CALDWELL, N.J. -- Freshman Elise Smith (O'Fallon, Ill.) had 12 kills, sophomore Chloe Kissner (Seabrook, Texas) had nine and junior Katie Compagno (Orland Park, Ill.) and freshman Demetria Gary (Savannah, Ga.) added seven apiece as #2 North seeded Caldwell rallied to defeat #3 South Jefferson, 19-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-11, in the CACC Tournament quarterfinals at the Newman Center. The Cougars (15-16) advance to the tournament semifinals on Saturday vs. No.1 North Holy Family, at Georgian Court University.

In a rematch of the past two CACC Tournament finals, the Rams struck first, riding an 18-9 start to a 25-19 first set win. But the Cougars stormed back, winning the second set wire to wire, then erasing an early third-set 7-2 deficit for the 25-21 win. In the fourth, 10 straight Cougars points followed a 4-4 tie, then after three straight by the Rams made it 14-7, the hosts ran off seven of the next eight before finishing off Jefferson for the second straight year.

Other strong contributors for the Cougars, who hit .231 on the night to just .046 by the Rams, were senior Jordan Hoffman (Colorado Springs, Colo.) with 21 assists and two service aces, freshman Samantha Ashton with 15 assists and freshman Humiko Stormer (Luckey, Ohio), who paced the team with 13 digs.

Jefferson (23-10) was led by senior Courtney Wensel with 11 kills.

The win was the seventh in the last eight matches for Caldwell, the defending CACC champions. Earlier in the day, Smith was named First Team All-CACC by the league's coaches.