Box Score

FAIRFIELD, CT—Sophomore Kajetan Borecki led the Highlanders for the second straight match, notching 15 kills en route to a 3-2 victory over Sacred Heart in EIVA men's volleyball action Saturday afternoon at the Pitt Center.

The Highlanders improve to 7-19 overall, 4-9 in the conference while the Pioneers fall to 4-18 overall and 2-11 in the conference.

NJIT opened up the match taking the first frame 25-23, but the home team answered in the second set, with a 25-20 victory to even the match at 1-1.  NJIT then took a 2-1 advantage after a 25-23 victory in the third set.  The Pioneers cruised to a 25-13 victory in the fourth frame forcing a fifth set, which NJIT would take, 15-9.

Borecki, who led the Highlanders with a career-high 20 kills at Harvard Friday night, produced 15 kills, six digs and three block assists at Sacred Heart.  Chris Kaepernick was the only other Highlander to post double-digit kills with 12, while adding 10 digs and four block assists.

Kevin Van Oss finished with eight kills and six total blocks (one solo, five assists) while Dhruv Lad added seven kills and seven digs for the winners.

Sophomore setter Zak Robben registered a double-double with 37 assists and 10 digs for NJIT.  Oren Zyndorf, who was coming off a career-high 19 kills at Harvard Friday, combined for eight digs while Brady Smith totaled seven.

Sacred Heart was paced by Nick Hunt, who notched a double-double with a match-high 15 kills and 12 digs to go along with three block assists.  Brad Borsay also posted a double-double of his own with 11 kills and 10 digs.  Raymond Satagaj and Will Leclerc added nine kills apiece.

Setter Benjamin Thomas piled up a match-high 49 assists and Satajaj combined for six total blocks (one solo, five assists).  AJ Logosh dug-up a match-high 13 digs followed by Hunt (12) and Borsay (10).

The Pioneers opened the first set on a 4-0 run but the Highlanders combined for three unanswered points, pulling within one early, 4-3.  The set remained close until the Pioneers widened the gap to 17-14.  The Highlanders scored the next three points for the first tie of the set at 17.  The visitors took its first lead of the frame on a service ace by Lad and maintained the lead for a 25-23 victory.

In the second frame, the match saw seven ties, the final at 15, when the Pioneers pushed their lead to 18-16, resulting in an NJIT timeout.  Sacred Heart scored the next three points, extending its lead to 21-16 on an NJIT service error.  The Highlanders scored the next point but the Pioneers scored the next three out of four points and finished off the set with a kill by Satagaj, for a 25-20 victory.

The third set was close throughout until the score was 18-17 in favor of Sacred Heart.  The Highlanders rallied off five straight points, four of which came with Van Oss back to serve, for a 22-18 lead.  The Pioneers pulled to within one of the visitors, 23-22 on a kill by Borsay and an NJIT attack error tied the set at 23.  The Highlanders held on for the win with back-to-back kills for a 25-23 victory.

In the fourth set, Sacred Heart hit an impressive .667 with 15 kills, one error on 21 attempts forcing a deciding fifth set, with a 25-13 victory.

In the fifth and deciding set, with the Pioneers leading by one, 5-4, the Highlanders ran off four points for an 8-5 lead.  Sacred Heart closed the gap to within two, 9-7, but the Highlanders went on a run of their own and blew open the score with four unanswered points for a 13-7 advantage taking the match 15-9 on a kill by Borecki.

NJIT will return to action next weekend, first visiting St. Francis (PA) on Friday at 7pm and at Penn State on Saturday at 7pm.