Box Score


NEWARK, NJ—Kevin Van Oss was the all-around leader for NJIT Thursday night, as the Highlanders outlasted visiting Limestone, 3-2, in non-conference men's volleyball action in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Van Oss accounted for a team-best 21 points, including the last three in a 15-10 fifth-set victory for the Highlanders, who raised their season record to 10-12. Limestone, from Gaffney, SC, drops to 12-9 with the loss.
 
The set scores for NJIT on Wednesday were: 24-26, 25-19, 25-21, 24-26, and 15-10 over Limestone, which is the second-place team in Conference Carolinas, which also includes past NJIT men's volleyball foes Lees-McRae, King, Mt. Olive, and Pfeiffer.
 
NJIT, which has won four of its last six matches and reached the 10-win mark for the first time since 2008, when it finished 13-14, got a match-best 16 kills from freshman TJ Jurko, followed by 15 from Van Oss, 14 from freshman Chris Kaepernick, and 12 from freshman Aurel Griesshammer.
 
Van Oss, hitting from the middle, was the only Highlander with a strong attack percentage, posting a .310 mark, with 15 kills and six errors in 29 swings. As a team, NJIT made 35 attack errors, 24 of which resulted from Limestone blocks and most of those came off of hits set out of the left side of the attack. The visiting Saints more than doubled the Highlanders in team blocks, 24-to-11.5.
 
The Highlanders had a 7-1 advantage in service aces, with Van Oss (3) leading the way. He also had three points on blocks with one block solo and four block assists.
 
With the fifth set tied, 9-9, Kaepernick notched a kill to put NJIT on top to stay and Van Oss nailed down a free ball to make it 11-9, prompting a Limestone timeout. Play resumed with a Kaepernick ace, before Limestone broke the run with a point, making it 10-12.
 
Van Oss then closed the set and match with a kill and back-to-back aces, as the Highlanders closed out the night on a 6-1 run.
 
NJIT's offense was triggered by a match-best 43 assists for Matthew Lui. On the defensive side, Brady Smith posted a match-leading 19 digs, followed by 13 for Griesshammer. In addition to Van Oss, two other Highlanders had five individual blocks, as Lui, the setter, had a block solo and four block assists, and Doug Battersby had five block assists.
 
The only Saint with double-figure kills was junior Scott Warren (15), who also served his team's only ace. Setter Andrew Pile collected 35 assists. Three Limestone players had double-figure digs, paced by 16 from Joe Gilliland. Warren added 14 and Pile finished with 11.
 
The blocking game leaders were Derek Daley, with 14 total blocks (1 solo, 13 assisted) and Warren (10 blocks, all assisted). Curtis Van Grinsven added seven (1 solo, 6 assisted), while James Dorr and Pile had five individual blocks apiece. Dorr's were five block assists and Pile's were a block solo and four block assists.
 
Limestone, which had won five of its previous seven since March 3, losing only at Lewis, ranked sixth nationally, and at Loyola-Chicago, on the 16th and 17th of March, respectively, jumped out quickly against NJIT, taking a 4-0 and then 6-1 lead to start the opening set.
 
The Saint stayed on top all the way to 23-22, when NJIT got back-to-back points for its only lead of the set, 24-23. However, the Highlanders could not find set point and the Saints ran off the last three, two on Daley kills for a 26-24 win.
 
NJIT conceded the first point of the second set, but then rattled off five in a row and gradually stretched its advantage to seven at 16-9 and 17-10. Leading 22-18, the Highlanders took three of the last four points, all on kills by Jurko, who piled up 11 in the second set alone.
 
The Highlanders controlled the early portion of the third set, as well, going ahead to stay at 2-1 and building advantages of 14-8 and 15-9. NJIT was threatened at 19-17, but the visitors never got closer, as NJIT took a 2-1 lead in sets with the 25-21 win.
 
NJIT again led all the way until past the midpoint of the fourth set, holding leads as big as four points and getting in sight of a four-set win with an 18-15 lead. However, the momentum shifted and Limestone went on a 7-0 spurt, keyed by five NJIT attack errors, four of which came on hits into multi-player Limestone blocks. Three of those blocks were by Warren and Daley on hits from the Highlanders' left side.
 
Down 18-22, NJIT rallied for four straight points of its own, tying the set at 22 apiece. Limestone then got two points and the Highlanders answered with kills from Adam Gustafson and Jurko, but the Saints picked up two points for their second 26-24 set win of the evening.
 
The fifth set, played to 15 points, had eight ties, with ties at every point but one up to 9-9, when NJIT settled things with their 6-1 burst to the finish line.
 
The Highlanders will resume play in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association with a Saturday visit to Harvard for a 3 pm match in Cambridge, MA.
 
Resurgent Harvard is second in the EIVA with a 6-2 league record and is 14-3 overall. The Crimson were 9-22 overall in 2011 and 1-7 in the Hay Division a year ago (the are no divisions in the EIVA this season).
 
Saturday's match is the first of the season between NJIT and Harvard, who will also meet in Newark on April 13. Last year, the teams split their two meetings, with the home team prevailing each time.