April 23, 2008

2008 EIVA Men's Volleyball Championship Information

NEWARK, NJ - It's been a long wait, but NJIT will step onto the big stage of men's college volleyball on Thursday, heading to University Park, PA, for the semifinal round of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Playoff Tournament and a Thursday afternoon date at 4:30 pm against second-seeded George Mason.

Top seed and host Penn State will take on NYU in Thursday's other semifinal match starting at 7:30 pm. The winners will advance to the EIVA championship match on Saturday at 7 pm. And the EIVA champion receives an automatic berth in the four-team national championship tournament field. The two semifinal matches and the championship match will be played in Rec Hall on the Penn State campus.

NJIT last advanced to the EIVA semifinals in 2000 and then spent the next five seasons in the wilderness before earning playoffs spots following the 2006, 2007 and now 2008 seasons.

The 2000 trip to the EIVA semifinals came a year after the NJIT program's greatest all-time accomplishment--a berth in the 1999 EIVA championship match, where perennial champ Penn State was forced to a deciding fifth game and defeated the Highlanders, 15-13, to move on to the national semifinals.

Penn State's Nittany Lions, ranked first in the nation this year with a 26-1 overall record, have won the EIVA title 19 times and represented the league in 16 of the last 17 NCAA championships.

Men's volleyball is a "national championship" sport with no divisions (I, II or III), per se. The NCAA championship field consists of four teams, which are drawn from three automatic berths and one at-large participant.

In addition to the EIVA champion, automatic berths go to the champion of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) and to the champion of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), as well as an at-large team.

The MPSF, considered the strongest of the three conferences from top to bottom, typically produces the at-large team. This year, seven MPSF teams follow number one Penn State in the latest national poll and two nationally-ranked MPSF teams, #13 Hawai'i and #15 UC Santa Barbara, didn't even make the eight-team MPSF tournament field.

All three conferences are conducting their semifinals on Thursday and their championships on Saturday, meaning NJIT is one of just 12 schools still playing with a chance to win the national championship.

Top-seeded Penn State and second-seeded George Mason (#11 in the nation and 19-7 overall) received byes into the semifinals of the 2008 EIVA Tournament.

NJIT (13-13 overall and seeded sixth in the EIVA) and NYU (23-7 overall and seeded eighth in the eight-team EIVA playoff field) played their way into the semifinals with two wins apiece.

NJIT was the sixth seed as the sixth-place regular season team in the higher power-rated EIVA Tait Division, while NYU was the eight seed as the second-place team in the lower power-rated EIVA Hay Division.

NYU won its opening round and quarterfinal matches on the road, defeating #5 Juniata, 3-2, in the first round and then #4 Saint Francis, PA, 3-0 in the quarterfinals.

The Highlanders, a somewhat deceptive 11-13 overall and 4-8 in the EIVA Tait Division regular season, opened the EIVA playoffs with a decisive 3-0 home win over EIVA Hay champ Springfield before winning the quarterfinal round match with a rousing come-from-behind 3-2 road win at Princeton.

The deception in the overall and conference records for NJIT lay in the fact that the Highlanders were 0-5 in matches against teams from the MIVA and MPSF--all on the road--and 0-4 against the EIVA's two nationally-ranked teams, Penn State and George Mason, accounting for nine of the Highlanders' 13 overall losses.

After Penn State and George Mason, the EIVA's clearly elite squads, three teams finished with 6-6 records in the EIVA Tait and the Highlanders split the season series with two of them, #3 Princeton and #4 Saint Francis.

The Highlanders have not won a game this season against either Penn State or George Mason.

NJIT opened EIVA Tait play with a 0-3 home loss against Penn State on February 2, but the match was competitive (30-27, 30-23, 30-25). In the return match on March 1, Penn State won, 30-20, 30-24 and 30-22.

Against George Mason on February 16 at home, NJIT was beaten, 33-31, 30-22 and 30-28. In the regular season finale in Fairfax, VA, Mason was 30-26, 30-27, 30-25 winner. Both times, the Patriots dominated the blocking, posting a combined 32.5-to-9 advantage in the two matches.

NJIT also played NYU, defeating the Violets, 3-1, at home on March 10. The Highlanders took the upper hand with a marathon 36-34 win in game one, before NYU drew even on a 30-24 win in game two. NJIT then won 30-22 and 30-17 to claim the match.

The NJIT roster features six seniors, three of whom are regular starters, plus the top libero and a setter who gets significant playing time and has started seven matches.

They have been at the core of a resurgence that has seen NJIT recover from the depths of a 2002 season that saw it finish 1-22 overall and 0-14 and last in the EIVA Tait Division.

Relegated to the EIVA Hay, NJIT was 5-19 overall and 1-11 in the Hay in 2003 and continued to struggle until 2005 when Ryan McNeil took over as head coach and the first of this year's seniors, led by Eduardo Welter, arrived as freshman.

That year, NJIT was 11-11 overall and 6-5 in the old EIVA Sweeney Division. In 2006, the Highlanders were 13-13 and returned to the EIVA postseason with an 8-4 record in the EIVA Hay Division, which was good for second place and the last EIVA playoff berth.

In 2007, NJIT went to 19-10--its best overall record since going 24-5 in the magical 1999 season, and the Highlanders won the Hay Division with a 9-1 record, earning a return to the EIVA playoffs.

This year, playing in the Tait, NJIT again made the EIVA playoffs and marked the milestones of its first postseason home match and first postseason win since 2000.

The 2008 senior class consists of: Welter, the first star to emerge in NJIT's new era; co-captain Mike Nonnenmann, the main setter as a freshman in 2005 and one of two setters with junior Rodrigo Correa in the three years since; Leonardo Paludo, who spent one year at Lees-McRae before transferring to NJIT and becoming a cornerstone star from 2006 on; four-year libero Chris Siddayao; middle Greg Wagner, a four-year regular; and reserve Matthew Sasso, who is completing his second season with the program.

Juniors Amobi Armstrong (2nd team, all-East in 2008) and setter Rodrigo Correa are two more key performers, as is sophomore Charles Bell. Junior Robert Thomas was a big contributor early before being sidelined by injury and freshmen Scott McHugh, Chuck Richmond and Steve Sylvester have all contributed at various times off the bench.