March 9, 2007

Box Score

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Institute of Technology rolled to an impressive 3-0 men's volleyball win over Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Hay Division rival Harvard Friday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Highlanders, who defeated Harvard, 3-2, on February 2 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, upped their EIVA Hay record to 6-1 with three divisional contests remaining on the schedule. NJIT is 11-4 overall. Harvard, meanwhile, fell to 7-4 overall and 3-4 in the EIVA Hay.

NJIT set the tone for the match with a dominant 30-20 win in game one. Harvard drew closer in each of the games that followed, but the Highlanders swept, nonetheless, completing the sweep, 30-24 and 30-28.

As a team, the Highlanders rode an impressive .415 attack percentage on 55 kills, 16 errors and 94 attempts. Eduardo Welter, in his second match back in his old hitting role, led NJIT with a match-best 21 kills. He had 21 kills and 5 errors in 35 attempts.

Junior middle hitter Greg Wagner, who rarely has an attack error, continued the trend with 11 kills and 1 error in 14 attempts for a .714 attack percentage. Leonardo Paludo (11) and Amobi Armstrong (10) also had double-figure kills totals.

Rodrigo Correa set for 46 assists, while Paludo and Chris Siddayao shared match honors for digs, with 10 apiece.

Blocking and serving did not figure in the outcome for either side, as Harvard had a 5-3 edge in team blocks and NJIT had a slight 3-2 advantage in service aces.

Brady Weissbourd's 13 kills paced Harvard and Jordan Weitzen added 10 kills for the Crimson. Dave Fitz had 29 assists and libero Brian Rapp picked up 6 digs.

NJIT will spend part of its Spring Break in California, starting with a Saturday night match at NAIA power Hope International. After that, the Highlanders will face two opponents ranked among the top nine teams in the latest national American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I/II poll. NJIT will visit #8 Pacific on Tuesday, March 13 and then #9 Cal State-Northridge on Wednesday.