Box score
FORT WAYNE, IN--IPFW defeated NJIT, 3-0 (30-23, 30-16, 30-27) Saturday night to complete a two-match sweep of the visiting Highlanders in the season-opening men's volleyball weekend for both squads.
The Mastodons, who compete in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, got a match-best 11 kills from Ivan Matos in defeating NJIT, which plays in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
The MIVA and EIVA are two of the three conferences that compete at the top level of men's college volleyball. The champions of the two conferences, plus the champion of the third top conference, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, receive automatic berths in the four-team NCAA national championship postseason field. An at-large team from among the four conferences rounds out the annual postseason championship field.
IPFW's Oliver Kook had 9 kills and just one error in 11 swings for a .727 attack percentage and Darryl Shank's attack percentage stood at .462 (7 kills, 1 error, 13 attempts) against NJIT. The Mastodons posted a .306 team hitting percentage contrasted with .058 for the youthful Highlanders, who are loaded with freshmen and managed 32 kills against 26 errors in 103 swings.
Dan Mader had 35 assists for IPFW, while Shaun Dryden collected 15 digs on defense. IPFW, which had a 13-8 team blocking advantage, was led at the net individually by Rob Samp's five blocks (1 solo, 4 assists).
Kevin Van Oss was the kills leader for the Highlanders, with eight, while Adam Feehan and Andrei Stoyanow added four kills apiece. All three are freshmen.
Sophomore Adam Gustafson led NJIT with 22 assists and the Highlanders did not have a service ace in the match. On defense, Stoyanow and classmate Brady Smith each led the way with eight digs and Feehan, Doug Battersby and Charles Bell shared the team blocks lead with three apiece. Battersby and Bell each had two block solos and a block assist, while Feehan had three block assists.
NJIT, which closed a 15-22 deficit to 19-22 before dropping the first set 23-30, lost the second set decisively before posting a competitive 27-30 loss in the third set.
The Highlanders, who last led at 14-13 and were tied 18-18, trailed, 23-26, before rallying to tie 26-26 on a kill by Christian Puszies and a pair of IPFW errors.
The teams traded points, with Bell's kill again pulling NJIT even at 27 all, before IPFW closed out the set and match with three straight points.
NJIT, which hosts Alumni Day on January 16, has its next official match on January 22 at 4:30 pm against Saint Francis (PA) in the opening round of the Golden Dome Classic, hosted by Rutgers-Newark.
