GAFFNEY, SC—NJIT men's volleyball made it two sweeps in two nights, as the visiting Highlanders overpowered Limestone 25-18, 25-18, and 25-17 Friday night in Limestone's Timken Center.
 
The victory, which came 24 hours after NJIT opened its three-match trip to the Carolinas with a 3-0 sweep at Coker in Hartsville, SC, lifted the Highlanders' won-lost record in the young season to 3-2, with wins in the last three matches.
 
Friday's defeat drops Limestone to 5-6 overall, but the Saints are 4-1 in Conference Carolinas, one of four conferences whose champion will earn an automatic qualifying berth in the six-team NCAA Division I-II postseason men's volleyball championship field.
 
NJIT, which never trailed after dropping behind 2-3 in the first of Friday's three sets, got a match-best 13 kills from sophomore outside hitter Jabarry Goodridge, who was backed by eight kills for Kajetan Borecki, seven for Luke Robbe, and six for TJ Jurko.
 
Robbe, a redshirt sophomore who is playing in the front row as a middle after spending his entire pre-college and pre-2015 college career as a setter, got his seven kills on just nine swings, with no errors for a .778 hitting percentage. Ryan Thomas, the senior in the middle for NJIT, had four kills on four swings.
 
Zak Robben piled up 31 of NJIT's 33 assists and the Highlanders, who had an 8-1 lead in service aces, got three from Thomas and two apiece from Goodridge and Robben.
 
Borecki was the defensive leader on the floor for the visitors, with a match-high 11 digs and the Highlanders, who held a 9.0-to-3.0 lead in total team blocks were paced at the net by Thomas, Robbe, and Jurko, all of whom had three blocks each. Thomas had two block solos and a block assist, while Robbe and Jurko each had the reverse, a block solo and two block assists.
 
Limestone's kills leader was Brazilian sophomore Bruno Kretzschmar, with eight, but he also had 10 attack errors and finished with a negative hitting percentage (-.067). Junior Alejandro DeMendoza had six kills and did not make an error in his 16 attempts.
 
Luka Wanek and Nick Wildes shared the setting duties for the Saints, with Wanek notching 11 assists to seven for Wildes. Kretzschmar served Limestone's only ace of the night.
 
One-time Highlander Dylan Lavner, who played at NJIT as a freshman in 2014, had a kill and a block assist for Limestone against his old team.
 
On defense, Daric Sanders topped the home team in digs (6) and DeMendoza had his team's only block solo, plus one of four block assists for Limestone.
 
NJIT trailed the opening set 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2, but then ran off five straight points with Borecki serving and the Highlanders would not trail the rest of the night. The 5-0 run grew to 6-1, then to 10-2 and eventually to 13-4, with the visitors on top, 15-7.
 
Limestone recovered a bit and trailed 14-19 after an NJIT service error, but then the Highlanders closed on a 6-1 spurt, with a Robbe kill nailing down set point.
 
There was 1-1 tie in the second frame and Limestone was within three at 11-14, but then the visitors removed any doubt with a 6-2 run that gave the Highlanders a 20-13 lead and they went on to win, 25-18.
 
NJIT scored the first two points and led all the way in a 25-17 clinching set. The Highlanders led by at least three points from 8-5 on. Their eight-point advantage at match point equaled their biggest lead of the set.
 
With two wins on the already-successful trip, NJIT will aim to make it a three-match sweep in the Carolinas when the Highlanders head north to Belmont, NC, for a 7 pm match Saturday at Belmont Abbey. A member of Conference Carolinas, like Limestone, Belmont Abbey is 2-3 overall and 1-2 in its conference.