Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—“Hit 'em where they ain't.” -- that was the advice from baseball Hall of Famer Wee Willie Keeler to his teammates early in the 20th century. But it could also apply to match point in Tuesday's marathon Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association competition between NJIT and visiting Sacred Heart, won by the Highlanders, 3-2 (25-17, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 16-14).
 
With NJIT facing the wrong side of set point in the deciding fifth set, 13-14, the Highlanders staved off elimination with the 24th of freshman TJ Jurko's match-best 24 kills. Then NJIT went up a point, 15-14, on a bad set by the visitors. Normally, 15 points clinches the fifth set, but a team needs at least a two-point lead to win a set.
 
In men's volleyball, power rules. Indeed, Sacred Heart took its 14-13 lead on an undigable laser shot into the floor by Nick Hunt. But NJIT won the set and the match when freshman Chris Kaepernick dinked the ball over the net and just beyond the reach of the Sacred Heart blockers, who had no choice but to jump early anticipating a big swing from the powerful Highlander freshman.
 
The leading hitters for NJIT (6-7 overall, 2-2 EIVA) were Jurko, with his 24 kills, and fellow freshman Aurel Griesshammer, with 14. Kaepernick, the third rookie in Coach Ryan McNeil's starting lineup, finished with seven kills, including match point.
 
Senior Adam Gustafson started at setter for NJIT, picking up 28 assists, but freshman Zak Robben was key, as well, coming off the bench in three sets and piling up 24 assists. One of the veteran Highlanders, junior Kevin Van Oss, served all four of his team's aces.
 
In addition to leading NJIT on the attack, Jurko was the leading defender on the floor, collecting 15 digs. Libero Brady Smith finished with nine digs and Griesshammer added eight.
 
The top blocker for the Highlanders was junior Doug Battersby, with five block assists. Van Oss and Gustafson had four block assists apiece, and Kaepernick had three. All 10 of NJIT's team blocks involved combinations of at least two blockers.
 
Sacred Heart (4-10, 1-5 EIVA) got 20 kills from the hard-hitting sophomore Hunt, along with 14 from sophomore Enzo McKenzie and 13 from sophomore Will LeClerc. McKenzie committed just two errors, while LeClerc made just one.
 
Freshman setter John Lutjen went the distance in that role for the Pioneers, piling up 52 assists. Jason Kinney served all three aces for Sacred Heart.
 
Junior libero Adrian Fernandez picked up a match-best 21 digs for SHU, while Mike Komlanc was the blocking leader, producing six block assists. LeClerc had a block solo and three block assists for the Pioneers, who enjoyed a small edge in team blocks, 11.5-to-10.
 
NJIT won the first set comfortably, 25-17, but it wasn't until just past the midpoint that the Highlanders took control. Tied at 13, they ran off four straight points—two on kills by Jurko—and led the rest of the way, with the eight-point spread at set point representing the widest spread of set (and the match, as well, as it turned out). Jurko had seven kills and no errors in nine swings (.778 attack percentage) to lead NJIT in the set.
 
Sacred Heart bounced back for a 25-21 win in the second set, paced by Hunt's seven kills. The visitors opened the set 4-1, but NJIT came back and did not trail from 6-5 to 19-19. However, the Pioneers took a 20-19 lead after back-to-back kills for Hunt and broke free of the last tie (21-21) thanks to four straight NJIT errors, two of which came on Sacred Heart blocks.
 
The teams then traded 25-23 wins in the next two sets, forcing a deciding fifth set, played to 15 points.
 
The third set was tied at 22 when the Highlanders gained the upper hand on a Battersby kill, followed by an SHU error. The Pioneers got their 23rd point on an NJIT error, but Jurko clinched for NJIT with his fourth kill of the set.
 
The fourth set, like the third, was tied 22-22, when Sacred Heart got consecutive kills from Komlanc and McKenzie. A Kaepernick kill kept NJIT alive for another point, but LeClerc killed set point, bringing the match to two sets apiece.
 
NJIT had the upper hand at the outset in set five, never trailing until very late (13-14) and leading by as many as three on three occasions, the last at 9-6. However, Sacred Heart used a 4-1 run that included two blocks to knot the score at 10-10. There would be ties at 11-11, 12-12, and 13-13, before the final dramatics that saw Hunt's blast put SHU on the brink of a match point that never came, as NJIT pulled out the 16-14 win with the last three points.
 
Tuesday night's win represented a measuring stick for the Highlanders. Last season, they faced Sacred Heart twice, losing at Sacred Heart, 3-1, and then in Newark against the Pioneers, 3-0. Indeed, Sacred Heart also won both 2010 meetings against the Highlanders. The teams did not play in 2009 and the last previous win for NJIT against Sacred Heart was in the only 2008 matchup on January 23 (2008 was the year the Highlanders last advanced to the EIVA playoff semifinals).
 
There will be a rematch on April 21 this year, when the teams close out the regular season at Sacred Heart.
 
Next up for NJIT is a non-conference match on Saturday at 7 pm, when the Highlanders take on Pfeiffer, from North Carolina, in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.