NEWARK,NJ—The NJIT men's volleyball ventured down Warren Street Tuesday afternoon and came back up with a three-set sweep over neighboring Rutgers-Newark Tuesday night, 25-17, 25-16 and 25-21 in the Golden Dome Athletic Center.
With the win, the Highlanders, who play in NCAA Division I-II in men's volleyball (the NCAA combines its top two Divisions in this sport), are 10-11 overall, matching their wins output from a year ago, when they finished 10-17. The program, playing its first season under new head coach
Danny Goncalves, has three matches left on the schedule, all in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA).
Rutgers-Newark, in its first year as a full member of NCAA Division III in men's volleyball, completes its regular season with a 21-9 record.
The Scarlet Raiders are coached by former NJIT standout and assistant coach Pedro Trevino (NJIT Class of 2001). Taking the helm at Rutgers-Newark in September 2011, Trevino has guided that program's reclassification from Division I to Division III. His team's next action will be on Saturday, when it hosts an NCAA Division III National Tournament match.
With all the realignment and reclassification in men's volleyball, the 2015 meeting between NJIT and Rutgers-Newark was sure to be different than in past years.
For decades, both programs competed in the EIVA. In fact, Rutgers-Newark was Division I in men's volleyball when NJIT was in both Division III and Division II, before reaching Division I.
The last program in the nation to compete in Division I in men's volleyball while the rest of its teams were in Division III, Rutgers-Newark reclassified men's volleyball to align with the rest of its sports in DIII.
Coincidentally. the EIVA, the top men's volleyball league in the East, lost all of its remaining Division III programs. The last holdout was Rutgers-Newark, which honored its existing Division I scholarships and did not change conferences until this season when it was championship-eligible in Division III after the last scholarship players had graduated.
Originally, the 2015 match was scheduled for January 27, early in the season. But bad winter weather intervened, pushing the contest to late and it was finally played Tuesday night.
Both coaches used a lot of their respective rosters Tuesday night, spreading out the individual stats in NJIT's straight-set victory.
TJ Jurko and
Chris Kaepernick shared match honors with 11 kills apiece for the Highlanders, while
Zak Robben piled up 41 assists. As a group, the Highlanders posted a .415 attack percentage (45 kills, 11 errors, 82 attempts).
NJIT, with a 6-0 advantage in service aces, got half its total from
Luke Robbe's three aces.
On defense, Kapernick, Robben, and
Oren Zyndorf shared the team digs lead with four each and Robbe was the blocking leader with three (2 solo, 1 assist).
The Scarlet Raiders got five kills each from Alex Barnhard and Francisco Bruno, while Corey Pieper notched 15 assists. Pieper's four digs paced Rutgers-Newark, which got block solos from three different players, while two others combined on the team's only assisted block.
The early stages of the opening set were close, with ties at each one of the first five points for either side. However, NJIT went up 6-5 on a kill for Jurko and led the rest of the way, gaining separation with a 5-0 spurt from 8-7 to 13-7. The Highlanders then coasted to a 25-17 win.
They never trailed the second set, breaking the last of three ties Kaepernick's kill that made the score 10-9. That kill sparked a 6-1 run for NJIT, which won 25-16.
The third set saw six ties, but NJIT which never trailed, went up to stay at 14-13 on a Rutgers-Newark service error.
The Highlanders will close the home portion of their schedule when they host EIVA matches this weekend against Saint Francis and perennial champion Penn State.
First up is a Friday 7 pm match in the Fleisher Athletic Center vs. Saint Francis. When the teams met in Loretto, PA, on March 27, NJIT came out a 3-1 winner.
