Box score
HOBOKEN, NJ—Stevens Institute of Technology, ranked 12th in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III men's national poll, improved its season record to 15-9 with a 3-1 win over visiting NJIT Tuesday night in Canavan Arena.
The Ducks took the first two sets before NJIT (5-16) claimed the third set. But Stevens scored its most decisive set victory in the fourth frame to wrap up the match. The scores for Stevens were: 25-19, 25-19, 18-25, 25-15.
Stevens, which hit .295 as a team (50 kills, 17 errors, 112 attempts), was paced on the attack by senior Jonathan Landis (15 kills, 4 errors, 31 attempts) and by sophomore Jake Modestow (10 kills, 1 error, 15 attempts, .600 hitting pct.).
The Ducks setter, senior Brandt Grobeis, piled up 41 assists. Senior SteFan PremDas served a pair of aces, leading Stevens to a 5-2 advantage in that area.
On defense, the Ducks had six different players with at least five digs, paced by Grobeis (8). They also had a decisive 15.5-8 advantage in team blocking over NJIT. The top blockers for Stevens were: Modestow (6 solo, 1 assisted); Grobeis (6 assisted); and senior Timothy Karl (6 assisted).
Adam Gustafson was the only Highlander attacker with a double-figure kills total, notching 12. Kevin Van Oss was effective in the middle, as well (7 kills, 1 error, 11 attempts, .545 hitting pct.).
Matthew Lui passed for a team-leading 34 assists, while Andrei Stoyanow accounted for both NJIT service aces.
Libero Brady Smith led everyone with 12 digs, followed by Gustafson's 10 digs for the Highlanders. Doug Battersby was NJIT's blocking leader, with two block solos and a block assist. Stoyanow had a pair of block solos and the versatile Gustafson notched two block assists.
NJIT led by as many as three points early in the first set, but Stevens broke a 14-14 tie with three straight points and never looked back in a 25-19 win in which it also scored four of the last five points.
Stevens conceded the first point of the second set, but then scored the next four and never trailed again in the set. The Ducks led 12-10 when they rattled off five straight points, the last three on blocks. They also closed out the second set decisively, scoring the last four points—two on blocks, one on an ace, and one on a Landis kill.
The highlight of the night for the Highlanders was the third set. They never trailed and twice ran off 5-0 spurts, the second of which pushed their lead to 20-12. Up 24-16, they allowed the Ducks a couple of points, but finished things off with a kill by Herman Kantushov.
There was no carryover momentum into the fourth set for NJIT, as Stevens fired out, 6-2. After a timeout called by Highlander coach Ryan McNeil, his team regrouped and closed the gap to 7-9, but Stevens answered the threat with a 4-0 burst. Playing from behind the rest of the way, the Highlanders hung reasonably close and trailed, 15-19, when the Ducks rattled off six unanswered points to clinch the set and match.
NJIT will return to action on Saturday at 2 pm, when it hosts a non-conference match in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center against Washington Adventist. The Highlanders were decisive 3-0 winners when they took on Washington Adventist in Takoma Park, MD, on January 13 in the third match of the season.
