Box Score
WATCH VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

NEWARK, NJ—With the temperature outside the Fleisher Athletic Center hovering in the low 20s, three young men from the Caribbean—Jabarry Goodridge, Ryan Thomas, and Raphael Anthony--sparked some tropical heat indoors, leading the Highlanders to a 3-1 win over visiting Barton Thursday night in non-conference men's volleyball.
 
Goodridge, a freshman, and Anthony, a sophomore, both hail from Barbados and graduated from Christ Church Foundation School a year apart. Thomas , a junior, is from Port of Spain, Trinidad.
 
NJIT (2-1) took the first, second, and fourth sets to defeat visiting Barton, 3-1. The Highlanders took charge with comfortable wins (25-17 and 25-15) in the opening two sets, but Barton avoided the sweep with a 25-19 win in the third set. NJIT then clinched the match in the fourth set, 25-18.
 
Goodridge, playing his third college match, led all hitters with 11 kills and had just 3 errors in 26 swings (.308). Thomas added 9 kills on a .412 hitting percent and Anthony finished with 8 kills and one error in 14 attempts. Combined, the trio had 28 kills and 6 errors in 57 swings (.386 attack percentage).
 
TJ Jurko added 9 kills for the Highlanders and Kajetan Borecki chipped in 6 kills.
 
Barton (2-4) got 9 kills Chad Stanback, Jr; 7 from Zach McCalla; and. 6 from Brennan O'Connor.
 
NJIT setter Zak Robben piled up 35 assists, while his Barton counterpart Federico Pagliara finished with 25 assists.
 
The Highlanders dominated the serving game, 12-0 in aces, with Jurko, the redshirt sophomore, leading the way with six, plus two apiece for Goodridge and Borecki.
 
Jurko now has 13 aces just three matches into the 2014 season adding an important weapon that didn't exist for the Highlanders last year when Jurko could not play due to injury. Jurko's 13 aces in three matches (12 sets) this season were surpassed in 2013 only by leader Doug Battersby (17aces; 28 matches; 105 sets) and by Herman Kantushov (16 aces; 24 matches; 69 sets).
 
On defense, junior libero Oren Zyndorf had 12 digs to pace NJIT on the floor, while Thomas had 6 block assists, supported by 4 block assists for Borecki. On the other side, Barton junior libero Mike McMahon, a transfer from West Coast power Pepperdine, was outstanding, notching 17 digs and Stanback and Tanner Medina each had 3 block assists.
 
NJIT, which has played its first three matches at home spread over a period of 20 days, has its two wins over teams from Conference Carolinas. The Highlanders won the home opener, 3-1 win over Limestone  on January 10; lost to Lindenwood from Missouri of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association by the same sets score; and, then topped Wilson, NC-based Barton on Thursday night in the first all-time meeting between the teams
 
The Highlanders, who are in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, will host another Conference Carolinas team, Lees-McRae, later in the season on February 22.
 
On Thursday night, NJIT and Barton were tied six times in the opening set, although the Highlanders never trailed, going on top permanently at 10-9 on a kill for Thomas. They went on to claim 8-point leads four times in the 20s, including the clinching point, 25-17.
 
The second set, which featured a team hitting percentage of .346 and four aces for Jurko, had nine ties and four lead changes, the last 13-12, when a kill by Jurko sparked a 10-3 run for the Highlanders, who clinched, 25-15, with a service ace by Goodridge.
 
The next set was the tightest of the night with 18 ties and 8 lead chances and Barton stayed alive, 25-19. NJIT, which had 10 kills and 6 errors in Set One, 12 kills and three errors in the second and would clinch with 14 kills and two errors in the fifth, had its worst hitting set of the night, with 10 kills and 10 errors.
 
The Highlanders actually held an 18-17 lead in the third set, but Barton closed with an 8-1 spurt, as NJIT lost points on five straight attack errors and then handed set point on the Highlanders' second ball handling error of the final three points.
 
The sloppy finish in the third set appeared to serve as a wake-up call for NJIT, which went ahead of the fifth set, 3-2, and finally pulled away with a closing flourish of 7-2, including match point on a Thomas ace.
 
The Highlanders will leave campus for the first time on Tuesday, February 4, but it won't be a long trip, as they visit Hoboken, NJ, for a match at Stevens, which advanced to the Division III national tournament in 2013 and finished at 25-10, including a 3-1 loss against NJIT.