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NEWARK, NJ-"Pleased" might not be the correct word, but the NJIT men's volleyball team felt something close to that after losing its eighth match in as many starts, falling to BYU, ranked third in the nation, 25-22, 25-19, and 25-19 on Saturday night in the Fleisher Athletic Center.

BYU, which has three men's volleyball national championships in its past and is among the nation's most respected programs in the sport, raised its 2016 record to 10-2, but it didn't come easily against the winless Highlanders.

A factor in NJIT's won-lost record is that second-year Highlander coach Danny Goncalves intentionally scheduled a difficult slate of non-league opponents before the start of play in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, which begins Friday, February 19, at perennial EIVA champ Penn State.

The Highlanders have played three matches against teams ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 15 and BYU, the highest ranked of those teams at #3, is the fourth opponent from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which is universally considered the top league in men's college volleyball.

BYU, which began its first trip to the Eastern Time Zone since 2008 with a 3-0 win at Princeton of the EIVA on Friday night, got a match-best 12 kills from 6-foot-10 sophomore opposite Tim Dobbert and 10 kills from 6-foot-10 junior outside hitter Jake Langlois.

Jabarry Goodridge, NJIT's hard-hitting junior, led the Highlanders with 11 kills. Raymond Kowalski added 9 kills for NJIT.

BYU had a 34-32 team advantage in kills, but NJIT's sophomore setter Cameron Tait was the match assists leader with 24, three more than Leo Durkin's 21 for the visiting Cougars.

NJIT had 5 service aces to 3 for BYU, with TJ Jurko of the Highlanders leading everyone with two aces.

A big advantage for the Cougars came in their 14.5-to-5 lead in total team blocks. That result was not a surprise since BYU lists 12 players on its roster who stand 6-foot-6 or taller.

Michael Hatch, 6-foot-8 had 9 block assists and the 6-10 Dobbert had a block solo and 8 block assists for BYU. Luke Robbe's 4 block assists were tops for NJIT.

In Saturday's close 25-22 opening set, BYU opened an 18-12 lead after Dobbert and Price Jarman blocked NJIT's Goodridge and the Cougars still held a comfortable 20-14 advantage a few points later.

But the Highlanders rallied and when Kowalski nailed consecutive kills and Langlois hit an attack out of bounds, the NJIT deficit was trimmed to 20-22.

Later kills by Robbe and Goodridge got the Highlanders to within 22-23, but two straight NJIT attack errors sealed the set for the visitors from Utah.

Each team generated 10 kills in the second set, but NJIT had 7 attacking errors, six attributable to BYU blocks, and BYU committed only 3 errors on its attack. The Cougars prevailed in the set, 25-19.

The Highlanders won the first three points of the third set and they went up 5-1 after a service ace for Robbe.

BYU then won 7 of the next 9 points and went ahead 8-7 on Dobbert's kill.

There would be four more ties, the latest at 13-13 on TJ Jurko's kill for the Highlanders.

Langlois answered for the visitors with a kill that triggered a 5-1 spurt that ended with BYU holding a 18-14 lead after a kill by Jarman, the 6-foot-9 sophomore.

The Highlanders claimed the next point, but never got closer to the lead than three points before BYU clinched the set and match, 25-19, with Joseph Grosh getting match point on a kill.

As it begins play in the EIVA, NJIT may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. BYU is #3 in the national poll, but Penn State, another national power is close behind at #7. The Nittany Lions, who won the national championship in 1994 and 2008, have been EIVA champion every year since 1998, when Princeton won the crown.