NEWARK, NJ—The sets were increasingly competitive as the match progressed, but visiting Rutgers-Newark came away with a hard-fought 3-0 sweep of NJIT in the final men's volleyball home match of the 2011 season for the Highlanders Friday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Scarlet Raiders (16-11) won the first set comfortably, 25-15; built a big early lead and then held on for a 25-22 win in the second set; and clinched the match with a 26-24 win in a third set that featured 15 ties and five lead changes.

Junior Austin Pappas was dominant on the attack for the visitors, notching a match-best 16 kills, with 5 errors on 25 swings for a .400 hitting percentage. Otherwise, Rutgers-Newark showed exceptional balance, as Grant Metheny picked up 8 kills and three men—Kenneth de Groh, Brett Pickens, and Marcin Midura—had 7 kills apiece.

Senior setter Jeff Zornig collected 43 assists—30 more than anyone else on either team—to trigger the visitors' offense. He also shared the team lead in service aces with Metheny, as each had 3 aces.

De Groh and Pappas led Rutgers-Newark in digs with 7 each, while Pickens had 4 block assists, leading his team to a 6-3 advantage in team blocks.

NJIT (7-20) had one player reach double figures in kills, as Herman Kantushov finished with 10. Kevin Van Oss was the most effective hitter for the Highlanders, picking up 9 kills from the middle on just 12 attempts without an error (.750 hitting percentage).

Two players worked at setter for the Highlanders, with Doug Battersby getting 12 assists and Matthew Lui 9. Adam Gustafson served 2 aces for NJIT, which got one ace apiece from three other players.

Kantushov, who led the Highlanders in kills, also led the floor defense with 6 digs. At the net, NJIT got block solos from Gustafson and Andrei Stoyanow and an assisted block from the combination of Adam Feehan and Rafal Kierznowski.

The first set was close early, with Rutgers-Newark holding a 9-8 lead. But the visitors took command from there with eight straight points that included two aces for Metheny and one for Midura. The Scarlet Raiders eventually built their lead to 10 points at 19-9 and cruised to the set win on the strength of .583 hitting (16 kills, 2 errors, 24 attempts).

Rutgers-Newark carried its momentum into the second set, jumping out to an 11-2 lead before the Highlanders regained some traction, going on a 6-0 run that included a kill and an ace for Gustafson.

Leading 11-8, the Scarlet Raiders surged again and went up 19-11. NJIT answered with a 9-2 push that closed the deficit to 20-21. Rutgers-Newark never relinquished its lead, but the Highlanders closed to within a point two more times, the latest at 22-23, before the visitors closed out the set with a kill for Metheny and a block by Metheny and Zornig.

The third set was close throughout, with the 15 ties and neither team leading by more than two points at any time. NJIT, which got the first point of the set, led by a lone point two more times, the last at 23-22. Rutgers-Newark finally broke a 24-24 tie with a kill for Pickens and then the clinching point on an out-of-bounds hit by the Highlanders.

NJIT will wrap up its season with an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Hay Division matchup on Saturday at 3 pm at Harvard. The Highlanders were 3-1 winners when the teams met in Newark on April 9.