Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Three Princeton hitters notched double-figure kills totals and the visiting Tigers swept NJIT, 3-0, in the 2010 home men’s volleyball opener for the Highlanders Friday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
NJIT, which committed multiple errors early to hand too many points to Princeton in the first set, cleaned up its play and played the visitors on closer terms as the match progressed. Indeed, the Highlanders rallied from down four, 16-20, to claim a 24-22 lead, before the Tigers reclaimed the momentum and took the third set, 30-26. Princeton had won the first two sets, 30-24 and 30-21.
Junior Vincent Tuminelli had a match-best 15 kills to pace the Princeton attack, while Carl Hamming generated 13 kills and Pat Schwagler added 11 for the winners, who had a .416 team hitting percentage.
Setter Scott Liljestrom had 51 assists and one of three service aces for Princeton. Michael Dye was the top blocker for the visitors, with two block assists and a solo block. Manny Sardinha had a match-best 11 digs for Princeton.
The attack leader for the Highlanders was senior Charles Bell with 10 kills and a .318 attack percentage from the middle, while freshman Christian Puszies added nine kills and his classmate, Kevin Van Oss finished with eight kills, and a third freshman, Doug Battersby produced seven kills.
Adam Gustafson passed out 29 assists. The Highlanders did not have a service ace and the top blockers were the senior, Bell, and the freshman, Battersby, each of whom had two block assists and a block solo. NJIT had a 6.5 to 5.5 advantage in team blocks.
Gustafson and Glen DeMagalhaes shared the NJIT lead in digs, with six apiece.
The Highlanders will play their next three matches on the road, beginning with a visit to fellow EIVA member Springfield on Tuesday night.