Box score
PRINCETON, NJ—Princeton, needing a win to stay tied in the loss column for second place in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, took care of business Saturday night, posting a straight-sets win (25-15, 25-20, 25-22) over visiting NJIT.
With Saturday's win, Princeton boosted its record to 6-2 in the EIVA and 8-4 overall, while NJIT's record dips to 1-7 in the EIVA and 3-14 overall.
George Mason, which swept NJIT in Newark on Friday night, did the same to Rutgers-Newark on Saturday, going to 7-2 in the EIVA, Perennial champ Penn State leads the EIVA at 8-1. Princeton and Mason are also close in the latest national American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I-II poll. Both are listed as “also receiving votes” with George Mason accumulating 14 points in the weighted voting system and Princeton having 13 points.
Princeton had two double-figure kills attackers against NJIT Saturday—Devin Stearns (12 kills) and Pat Schwagler (10 kills). Setter Davis Waddell recorded 30 assists and the Tigers, who dominated the serving part of the game with six aces to one for the Highlanders, got three aces from Schwagler and two aces from Will Siroky.
On defense, Princeton's Tony Ensbury posted a match-best 10 digs and in a match where the team blocking was even at four apiece, Brad Howard and Waddell each picked up a pair of block assists for the winners.
NJIT, which went a second straight match with a hitter in double-figures for kills, had four players—
Kevin Van Oss,
Doug Battersby,
Dhruv Lad, and
Brad Thele—with five kills apiece. Meanwhile,
Zak Robben (15 assists) and
Matthew Lui (13 assists) shared the setting duties. Battersby had the only service ace for the Highlanders.
Libero
Brady Smith (8 digs) led the NJIT floor defense and
Ryan Thomas led the way at the net, with two block assists.
When the teams had their first meeting of two for the season on February 15 in Newark, Princeton needed a 15-13 win in the fifth, and deciding, set to secure a 3-2 win. In fact, that match was so close, the cumulative points score through the first four sets was 90-90.
Saturday's rematch was not nearly as close, with Princeton holding substantial leads in the latter stages in each of the three sets.. Princeton went ahead to stay in the first set at 8-7, beginning a 10-3 Tiger run that made the score 17-10. Princeton soon closed the set with a 6-2 run.
NJIT led the second set early, 3-1, and 5-4 a bit later, but Princeton used a 7-2 spurt to build an 11-7 lead and never allowed the Highlanders to get closer than two the rest of the way.
The third set was tied around the midpoint at 13-13 and NJIT trailed by one, 14-15, a few points later. But the Tigers used another dominant stretch to go ahead 21-16. Lui, the senior, returned to the floor as setter with his team down by five and the Highlanders went on a 5-2 run of their own, trimming the deficit to 21-23. The teams then traded kills before Siroky nailed a kill to make the final score 25-22.
NJIT will play its next five matches against teams from Conference Carolinas, a multiple-sport conference of NCAA Division II schools that includes men's volleyball among its championship sports, a rarity. Of the three leagues holding automatic berths into the four-team Division I-II National Championship tournament, two—the EIVA and Midwest Intercollegiate Athletic Association—are set up solely as men's volleyball groupings. The third, and most powerful, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, has multiple sports, but it is designed to provide championships in sports that are not sponsored by various conferences. For example, the Pac 12 does not have a men's volleyball championship, so Stanford, UCLA, and USC play men's volleyball in the MPSF.
NJIT's run of matches vs. Conference Carolinas teams begins at home on Thursday at 7 pm against King (TN) in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. After that, the Highlanders will play four matches in five nights in South Carolina and North Carolina from March 18 to March 22.
