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NEWARK, NJ—The NJIT men's volleyball team opens its 2014 season with a non-conference home match on Friday at 2:30 pm, when the Highlanders host Limestone College of Gaffney, SC, in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Indeed, all five January 2014 matches will be played at home for the Highlanders.
 
Fans can follow NJIT men's volleyball in person, with 13 home contests for the season played in the Fleisher Athletic Center between Friday's opener and an April 12 match vs. Springfield in the home finale. Tickets are priced at $5 for general admission; $3 for faculty, staff, and alumni with appropriate ID; and free for NJIT students with appropriate ID.
 
For those who are unable to attend the home matches in person, NJIT will offer live streaming video and real-time match statistics, both available here on www.NJITHighlanders.com. Video viewing is available by subscription only, with a single-match fee of $6.95 and a season subscription of the 13 home matches is available for $65 for the season. For ordering details see the Highlanders All Access section of this website.
 
NJIT, which plays in the top-rated men's volleyball league in the East, the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, enters 2014 aiming to improve on 2013, when the rebuilding program finished 4-10 in the EIVA and 7-21 overall. This year, the Highlanders were picked sixth in the eight-team EIVA in a poll of the loop's coaches.
 
Limestone, which plays in Conference Carolinas, was 9-7 in its conference last season and 15-14 overall. One of Limestone's non-conference wins came at the expense of the Highlanders, when the Saint prevailed in Gaffney, 3-1 (29-27, 25-27, 25-23, and 25-22). In 2012, NJIT was a 3-2 winner over Limestone in a match played in Newark on March 29.
 
Both teams return their kills per set leaders from a season ago—Chris Kaepernick (2.38 kps) for NJIT; and Eric Zaun, who hails from Cherry Hill, NJ, for Limestone (3.14 kps). Both men are juniors. Kaepernick was second on the Highlanders in digs per set (1.34 dps) and Zaun led the Saints in that category. Each team is replacing its setting leader, but each returns setters who were a close second on their 2013 squads. Junior Zak Robben averaged 6.82 assists per set for the Highlanders a year ago, while Chris Mineo was second on the Saints with 9.56 aps.
 
The way NCAA men's volleyball is structured, Divisions I and II are combined into one division for the sake of championships and Division III has a separate NCAA championship.
 
That was not the case until recent years, when there was one NCAA championship. In theory, some of the top Division III schools could have qualified for what was and remains a four-team championship field.
 
In practice, however, such a thing was virtually impossible, with the only avenue being for one of a handful of strong Division III programs such as Springfield, NYU, and Juniata needing to win the EIVA, which has an automatic berth in the four-team NCAA championship field. They never got that far and there were Division III championships contested outside the auspices of the official NCAA championship structure for many years.
 
With the advent of an official NCAA Division III championship a few years ago, all of the Division III programs that were in the EIVA have dropped out, since there is no reason for them to compete in a circuit whose champion goes to the Division I-II NCAA championship.
 
The NCAA Division I-II championship field is made up of the EIVA champion, the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association champion, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion and a fourth at-large team, which is typically a second team from the MPSF.
 
Conference Carolinas is an all-sports conference made up of NCAA Division II programs, mostly from, as the name implies, the two Carolinas, joined by King from Tennessee.
 
Although it does not have an automatic qualifying berth in the national championship, Conference Carolinas men's volleyball programs can improve their national profile and power ranking in the sport by defeating teams from automatic qualifying conferences, such as NJIT of the EIVA.