CHARLESTON, WV—After opening the new season with a pair of losses in Missouri, NJIT men's volleyball broke into the wins column for new head coach Danny Goncalves Sunday afternoon, sweeping University of Charleston, 3-0.
 
The Highlanders won the first two sets handily, 25-11 and 25-12, before clinching the sweep by a closer score in the third set, 25-18. Charleston is 0-3 in its first season of varsity men's volleyball competition.
 
NJIT had dominant hitting sets in the first two frames, notching 8 kills in 12 attempts without an error in the opening set for a .667 attack percentage and following with 11 kills and 3 errors on 15 swings (.533 attack percentage in the second set). The third set saw a big dropoff in attacking efficiency, as the Highlanders had 8 kills, 4 errors and 13 zero attacks (neither a kill nor an error) in 25 attempts for a .160 attack percentage. Still NJIT's match totals were an impressive 27 kills and 7 errors in 52 swings for a .385 team attack percentage.
 
Senior Kajetan Borecki was the kills leader for the Highlanders with 8, followed closely by Jabarry Goodridge (7) and TJ Jurko (6). Feeding them was senior setter Zak Robben, who was credited with assists on 24 of NJIT's 27 kills.
 
NJIT had a 6-4 advantage in service aces, with two each from Ryan Thomas and Luke Robbe.
 
On defense, senior libero Oren Zyndorf led the way with 11 digs. NJIT completely dominated at the net, posting 12 total team blocks to just one for Charleston.
 
The individual blocking NJIT leader was Thomas (4 block solos), followed by Goodridge, Jurko, and Robbe, all with two block solos apiece.
 
The 12 NJIT blocks comprised more than half of Charleston's 23 attack error and the Golden Eagles posted a negative attacking percentage (more errors than kills) for the match. In all, Charleston had 14 kills and 23 errors in 63 attempts. The worst set was the second, when the home team had just one kill, but made 9 errors in 17 attempts (-.471 attack percentage).
 
Brian Cranston and Rajahl Moxey shared the kills lead for Charleston with four each, while setter Anthony Rivera collected 10 assists. Rivera's four digs led the Charleston defense on the floor and Ryan Santos had his team's only block on a block solo. Moxey served two aces for the xxx, as well. Cranston is a sophomore, while Moxey, Rivera, and Santos are all freshmen.
 
NJIT men's volleyball will hold it Alumni Day on Saturday at 5 pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center before returning to intercollegiate competition with a trip down Warren Street to visit Rutgers-Newark on Tuesday, January 27 at 7 pm in the Golden Dome Arena.
 
For the first time in memory, NJIT and Rutgers-Newark are no longer members of the same men's volleyball conference. As a result, the match on the 27th will be the only one of the season between the two neighboring programs.
 
For many years, Rutgers-Newark was NCAA Division I in men's volleyball, even though the rest of the program was in Division III. In Division I, Rutgers-Newark played in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). However, with the advent of an NCAA championship in Division III men's volleyball, Rutgers-Newark chose to align its team in that sport with the rest of its programs.
 
With the realignment complete, Rutgers-Newark has departed the Division I-II EIVA for the Division III Continental Volleyball Conference.
 
NJIT, which was in the EIVA when the EIVA had Divisions I, II, and III, remains in the EIVA now that the association is comprised of all NCAA Division I programs (also the NCAA combines Division I and II into what it calls Division I-II, due to the number of sponsoring institutions). Sunday's opponent, Charleston, is Division II in its overall athletic program, thus joining Division I-II in men's volleyball.