NEWARK, NJ—NJIT men's volleyball picked up its third victory of the season, sweeping a non-conference match from visiting Kean, 3-0, Tuesday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Highlanders took the three sets by scores of 25-22, 25-15, and 25-19. The result left both teams with season records of 3-6.

For NJIT, freshman Dhruv Lad and sophomore Andrei Stoyanow paced the attack with 9 kills apiece. Matthew Lui, the setter in the first two sets, had 17 assists and Adam Gustafson collected 11 assists in the third set.

Freshman Rafal Kierznowski, who had 3 kills without an error in the attack, notched 3 aces and combined with Lad, who had two, to give NJIT a 5-1 advantage in aces.

NJIT also enjoyed a 9-5 lead in team blocking, paced by 5 block assists for Kevin Van Oss. Sophomore Ryan Blondell picked up a match-best 8 digs on the floor to lead the Highlanders.

Kean, in its first season as a varsity program, got 9 kills from Steve Vahalla and 8 from Christian Portera, while Sam Haimann picked up 22 assists.

On defense, Tom Kemmerle had 7 digs for the Cougars and three players had two block assists apiece.

The first set was close throughout, with five ties and four lead changes. NJIT broke a 17-17 tie with four straight points and led by at least three the rest of the way to 25.

NJIT had a negative attack percentage in the first set (more errors than kills), but got on track in the next two sets, hitting .474 (11 kills, 2 errors, 19 attacks) in the second set and .423 (13 kills, 2 errors, 26 attacks) in the third set.

The Highlanders took control of the second set early, running off six straight points from 3-3 and led by at least five from 11-6 on.

NJIT never trailed in the third set, but there were 10 ties, the last at 16-16. The Highlanders took control with a 4-0 run that included two kills for Lad and an ace for Kierznowski. Kean did not get closer than three the rest of the way.

Tuesday's match was originally scheduled for January 27, but was postponed by bad winter weather. As it turned out, the rescheduled date helped fill a gap, because NJIT would have gone 12 days between matches on its original schedule.

The Highlanders will return to action on Wednesday, February 16, when they host New York University in an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Hay Division match set for 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.