NEWARK, NJ—Showing the more potent attack, visiting Rutgers-Newark scored a 3-0 win (30-27, 30-24, 31-29) over NJIT Wednesday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center in the first of two scheduled men's volleyball matchups this season between the neighborhood rivals.

Most of the statistical categories were close—6-6 in service aces and 9-9 in team blocking—but Rutgers (5-5) had the clear upper hand in the crucial kills category, posting 49 to just 30 for the Highlanders (3-7).

Rutgers-Newark had three players with individual double-figure kills totals, led by 16 for junior Nate Stott, who had just three errors in 25 attempts for a .520 hitting percentage. Senior Kenny Rienecker added 13 kills and sophomore Grant Metheny chipped in 10 kills for the winners.

Liran Shapiro piled up 42 assists for Rutgers-Newark, while Stott and Kenneth Stumbaugh each notched two aces. On defense, Rienecker had a match-best 13 digs and Stumbaugh had five block assists.

Charles Bell topped NJIT with nine kills, while Glen DeMagalhaes finished with eight kills. Senior setter Rodrigo Correa produced 25 assists. Robert Thomas was a bright spot for the Highlanders, picking up six total blocks (1 solo, 5 assists).

Down 2-0 in sets, NJIT tried to make a stand in the third and built a 16-11 lead. The Highlanders still led, 18-14, when the visitors reeled off four straight--three with Shapiro, the setter, serving.

NJIT recovered to build a 24-21 lead, but again, the visitors ran off the points they needed to stay in contention, pulling even at 24-24.

Still, the Highlanders got to set point at 29-27 after a Rutgers service error, but 29 would be their last point of the match. The Scarlet Raiders ran off four straight points to close out the set and match, the last two coming on similar left-side attacks that saw NJIT hit the ball directly into two-man blocks by Rienecker and Stumbaugh. Stott generated eight kills and Rienecker had six in the clinching set.

Rutgers-Newark used a 5-0 spurt to turn a 14-17 deficit into a 19-17 lead en route to a 30-27 win in the first set. Indeed, the Scarlet Raiders got their lead up to 28-23 before staving off a late NJIT charge. Grant Metheny and Kenny Rienecker had five kills apiece to pace the Rutgers attack. NJIT's Bell had four kills.

There were 13 ties as the teams seesawed their way to the 23-point mark in the second set, before the visitors gained the upper hand with two points on an NJIT service error and a kill by Nate Stott. Those two points were part of a 7-1 run to the finish. Stott notched five kills in the frame, as did Bell of the Highlanders.

Both schools are members of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, but their paths have rarely crossed on the court in recent years due primarily to being in different divisions of the EIVA.

NJIT was out of the EIVA's top division, the Tait, between 2003 and 2007. And when the Highlanders won the Hay Division and moved up to the Tait Division for 2008, it was Rutgers-Newark, last in the Tait in 2007, that was relegated down to the Hay for 2008.

With Karl France taking over as Rutgers-Newark coach and being open to playing even as non-divisional foes, the rivalry between the neighbors was renewed with a single meeting in 2008, won by the Highlanders, 3-2.

This year, although they remain in separate EIVA divisions, NJIT and Rutgers-Newark are scheduled to play twice, with the second meeting set for March 9, when the Highlanders travel down Warren Street to visit the Scarlet Raiders.

With wins hard to come by lately and NJIT searching for answers as it tries to get back on course, things figure to get hotter yet for the Highlanders, who will visit defending national champion and third-ranked Penn State for a 2 pm game on Saturday.