Box Score
FORT WAYNE, IN—IPFW, ranked 12th in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I-II men's national poll, raised its record to 15-4 Saturday night in a sweep of visiting NJIT, 25-17, 25-18, and 25-20 in the Gates Sports Center.
IPFW, which plays in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, which is having a strong year in 2014, has won nine of its 10 home matches, including 3-0 sweeps in its last two matchups.
Three of IPFW's four defeats this season are on the road against teams ranked at least 13th nationally at the time they took on the Mastodons. One of the defeats was 1-3 last month in Chicago against Loyola, which now tops the national poll. The rematch in Fort Wayne is coming up on March 29.
NJIT, which dropped to 7-8 overall with Saturday's loss, is 1-7 this season on the road, a bad mix with the Mastodons' 9-1 home mark.
IPFW's Andrew Sellan led the match with 16 kills, double the total of anyone else on the floor. He had 3 errors in 27 attempts, resulting in a .481 attack percentage. Sellan, a sophomore who was All-MIVA as a rookie, also notched three of the match's four service aces, as teammate David Frazee added one and NJIT didn't have any.
Sellan was the only Mastodon hitter with double-figure kills, but junior Bryan Saunders hit to a .600 percentage, with 7 kills and only one error in 10 swings.
Legendary head coach of IPFW, Arnie Ball, who is in his 34th season with the Mastodons, who he has led to six national top three finishes, used two setters in the match, with freshman Gabriel Quinones collecting 28 assists and sophomore Jordan Armstrong adding 16.
On defense, senior Eddie Rivera led the Mastodons with 11 digs and Luis Bertran added 10. At the net, where NJIT had a slight lead in total team blocks (6.0-to-5.5). Quinones and Rivera each registered a block solo and a block assist. Five other IPFW players were credited with one block assist each.
The kills leader for NJIT was junior
Chris Kaepernick, with eight. Freshman
Luke Robbe picked up 15 assists and
Zak Robben, who started the first two sets added 14 assists.
Junior
Oren Zyndorf, the libero for the Highlanders, dug up a match-best 12 digs, and Robbe and
Ryan Thomas each had 3 block assists.
There were two ties in the opening set, but they were at 1-1 and 2-2, as IPFW began pulling away after a Sellan kill gave the home team a 3-2 edge. The biggest lead was eight at four different junctures the last on set point, an ace by Sellan.
In the second frame, NJIT took what would be its only lead of the night, 5-4, on a kill for
Jabarry Goodridge. But the home team ran off six consecutive points for a 10-5 lead. The Highlanders used a late 4-1 spurt to close the gap to 17-23, but a kill and then an ace for Frazee sealed the set for IPFW.
The Mastodons scored the first three points of the third set. NJIT got back within a point at 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, and 8-9, but never managed to tie. Trailing by six, 18-24, when the Mastodons reached the doorstep of sealing the match, the Highlanders got two more points before Kevin Villela nailed match point with his sixth kill of the evening.
Saturday's win for IPFW, avenged a 2-3 loss to the Highlanders when the teams met in Newark on January 13, 2013. The Mastodons now lead the all-time series between the two programs, 7-1.
NJIT's Spring Break swing to the Midwest will take the Highlanders to Lebanon, IL, and McKendree University. The Bearcats, in their first year of men's volleyball, are 8-18, and NJIT will be their first opponent from the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The match is set Monday at 7 pm (Central).
