NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Harvard came away with a 3-1 victory against NJIT in an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match that saw the first and fourth sets go to extra points and the middle two frames decided by a combined total of five points Saturday in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
NJIT (5-5; 0-3 EIVA) took the opening set, 26-24, but Harvard (6-4; 2-1 EIVA; #13 in the latest national  Division I-II poll) came back to sweep the next three closely-fought sets, 25-22, 25-23, and 26-24.
 
The day was filled with ties scores—10, 13, and 12, in the opening three sets, respectively, and then seven ties in Harvard's clinching frame that required 26 points to determine the winner.
 
Junior Branden Clemens led Harvard with 16 kills, followed closely by 15 from senior DJ White, who has been 1st-team All-EIVA in his first three seasons and was an honorable mention All-America last year.
 
Sophomore Nick Bendell triggered the Crimson attack with 49 assists and Clemens and Casey White, DJ's sophomore brother, each had a pair of service aces.
 
DJ White topped Harvard with 10 digs, while Clemens added 9.
 
At the net, 6-foot-9 middle Caleb Zimmick topped the visitors with 5 blocks (all block assists) and DJ White added 4 block assists. All 8.5 total team blocks for the winners were done in combination with a teammate.
 
Zimmick and freshman Brad Gretsch did not post double-figures in kills, but they were efficient. Gretcsh  notched 7 kills, with just one error, in 9 swings. For Zimmick, it was 6 kills, one error, 11 attempts.
 
NJIT put up good numbers against a strong opponent on Saturday, but the Highlanders were undermined by their own errors attacking and serving.
 
The Highlanders had 62 kills—12 more than Harvard's total—but NJIT also committed 22 attack errors to 15 for Harvard.
 
The "errors" category accounts for points awarded to the other team based on something your team does. Attack errors are calculated in the "attack (aka hitting) percentage" and the NJIT errors were a big reason why Harvard's attack percentage was .343, compared to .305 for the Highlanders, even though they recorded 12 more kills.
 
Errors undermined NJIT even more in another department—serves. The total of service aces were close. In fact, the Highlanders had 6 aces to 5 for the Crimson. But the Highlanders also had 23 service errors (serves hit out of bounds or into the net) to just 11 for the winners.
 
In a match where three sets were decided by two-point margins and the fourth was decided by three, the 45 points on NJIT errors attacking and serving to 26 errors in the same areas for Harvard, played a big role in determining the day's winner.
 
On the positive side, NJIT had three players with double-figure kills totals, topped by a match-high 22 from Kajetan Borecki. With 22 kills and just 5 attack errors in 40 attempts, he had a strong .425 attack percentage.
 
TJ Jurko added 18 kills for NJIT, with Jabarry Goodridge chipping in 11. Ryan Thomas had 7 kills from the middle for the Highlanders.
 
Senior Zak Robben led the match with 51 assists, while Jurko, a reshirt junior, served four of his team's six aces.
 
On the floor, Oren Zyndorf picked up 10 digs, while Borecki contributed 8.
  
NJIT trailed the opening set, 21-23, but came back to tie on a kill for Borecki and then a two-man block from Borecki and Thomas.
 
A kill for Jurko made it 24-23, Highlanders, but Harvard tied before Thomas posted a kill and then combined with Jurko and Robben to block DJ White for set point.
 
The second frame, won by Harvard, 25-22, featured 13 ties and four lead changes. All of the ties came before the home stretch, with the Crimson going ahead to stay a 17-16 on a Highlander hitting error.
 
NJIT's last point of the set came on a kill for Luke Robbe that pulled the home team into a 22-23 score. But Harvard claimed the set when the Highlanders committed two unforced errors, first on a serve and then on an attack.
 
The third set was decided late. Harvard had broken an 18-18 tie on a kill for DJ White, but could not get ahead by more than two points. The Highlanders later got to within a point at 19-20, 20-21, 21-22, 22-23, and 23-24, but lost set point on a service error.
 
The Highlanders hit a rough patch about halfway through the fourth set, falling behind 11-17 when Harvard ran off a 4-0 spurt.
 
NJIT coach Danny Goncalves used a timeout to stop the bleeding and his team fought its way back into contention, using a 4-1 spurt to pull even late at 24-24, with the last two spurts coming on blocks of the All-American DJ White by the duo of Thomas and Jurko.
 
Having battled back into the tie, the Highlanders couldn't quite reach the summit, as Gretsch delivered a kill for the visitors and then combined with Casey White for a block and match point.
 
With its most encouraging EIVA showing to date under its belt with the Harvard match, NJIT next steps out of the East's top volleyball league for a pair of non-conference home matches.
 
The Highlanders will host Coker on Thursday at 7 pm and Charleston (WV) on Saturday at 7 pm. Both will be played on campus in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Both, too, are rematches of earlier contests the Highlanders won in sweeps on the road. NJIT defeated Charleston in Charleston on January 18 and they took Coker in Hartsville. SC, on January 29.