Box score
NEWARK, NJ—NJIT had one of its strongest men's volleyball matches of the season, sweeping three sets from visiting King College in non-conference action Thursday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. The scores were: 25-19, 25-18, and 25-18.
The Highlanders, who will play nine of their remaining 10 matches away from home, raised their record to 4-14 with the win in Thursday's next-to-last home match, while King, which visited from Bristol, Tennessee, drops to 9-14. Nicknamed “Tornado”, King is a member of Conference Carolinas, a multi-sport NCAA Division II league that has eight schools from North Carolina and South Carolina, plus King, that compete in men's volleyball.
NJIT, which had its best team hitting percentage of the season (.321; 40 kills, 14 errors; 81 attempts), did not have anyone with double-figures in the kill department. Indeed, no one for either side had more than nine kills.
Highlander senior
Doug Battersby was nearly flawless, however, hitting to a percentage of .818 on nine kills in 11 attempts without an error.
Kajetan Borecki had eight kills, two errors, and 16 swings for a .375 hitting percentage, which was matched by
Kevin Van Oss (.375; 5 k, 2 e, 8 ta).
Chris Kaepernick also had five kills and two errors, but on 12 swings, and
Herman Kantushov notched six kills, with three errors, in 13 swings (.231). Hitting percentage (aka attack percentage) is calculated by deducting errors from kills and then dividing by the number of total attempts.
NJIT senior setter
Matthew Lui piled up a match-best 32 assists and shared the match services aces lead with Van Oss at two apiece.
On defense. NJIT senior libero
Brady Smith was the leader on the floor, with seven digs, while Battersby had two block solos and a block assist to lead the Highlanders at the net.
The top attackers for King were senior Michael Koebel (9 kills) and freshman Zach Presta (6 kills), while setter Ashton Hippenstiel accumulated 23 assists. Three different Tornado players logged one service ace each; Prexta and Stephen Brown had five digs each to lead King in that statistic, while Matthew Harper was the match blocking leader with five block assists. Koebel and Hippenstiel each added four block assists for King, which had a team blocking advantage of 9.5-to-5.
NJIT was on its game most of the night, snapping an 8-8 tie in the first set with a 9-2 run that put the Highlanders on top, 17-10 and they led by at least five points for the remainder of the 25-19 set. Borecki had four kills in five attempts to lead the NJIT attack.
The Highlanders never trailed in the second set and went ahead to stay after breaking another 8-8 tie, as they had in the first set. The biggest NJIT lead was seven points, which it achieved five times from 21-14 on. Battersby had kills on all four of his swings in the set.
With Van Oss serving, NJIT opened the third set, 4-0 and eventually led early, 6-1. Leading by at least five points from 10-5 until 21-17, NJIT closed out the set with a 4-2 run.
Having played Conference Carolinas members Lee-McRae (1-3 loss on February 7) and King at home, NJIT will play four matches against teams from Conference Carolinas on the road during Spring Break. The Highlanders will visit Erskine and Limestone in South Carolina on March 18 and 19, respectively, and, after a day off, visit Lees-McRae and Pfeiffer in North Carolina on March 21 and 22, respectively.
