Post Game Interview

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT fought back from a 2-1 deficit in sets to pull out a 3-2 win over visiting Sacred Heart in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association action Friday night in the Fleisher Athletic Association.
 
The Highlanders (1-10; 1-2 EIVA) won the first set comfortably, 25-16, but Sacred Heart (3-9; 3-2 EIVA) came back to take the next two sets, 25-20 and 25-23. Facing elimination, NJIT scored a solid win in the fourth set, 25-16, and then won the match with a 15-11 victory in the fifth set.
 
Junior Jabarry Goodridge paced the attack for the winners with 18 kills. He committed only 5 errors on his 37 swings and registered a .351 attack percentage. Redshirt senior TJ Jurko also reached double-figures in kills (13),
 
Brad Thele had 7 kills without an error for the Highlanders and senior Raphael Anthony notched 6 kills without an error on 8 attempts for a .750 attack percentage. Hitting from the middle, Luke Robbe collected 7 kills and had two errors in 12 attempts.
 
Given those individual numbers, it's not a surprise that NJIT's team hitting percentage was .342 (57 kills, 18 errors, 114 attempts). That was topped this season only by the .392 the Highlanders hit in a four-set loss at Penn State last Friday night.
 
Sophomore setter Cameron Tait piled up a match-best 50 assists to trigger the NJIT attack and Jurko served a match-best 3 aces. NJIT enjoyed an 8-1 advantage in aces.
 
The Highlanders also had a decided lead in total team blocks (15.0-to-7.0) and Robbe and Anthony each had 5 individual blocks. Anthony's five blocks were all assisted and Robbe had 2 block solos and 3 block assists.
 
On the floor, freshman Chris Wise had 11 digs for the Highlanders.
 
Junior Chris Delucie had a match-best 27 kills for Sacred Heart, followed by 15 kills for senior Austin Alcala.
 
Junior Eduardo Zardo had 43 assists for the Pioneers and Michael Comens served the only ace for SHU. Taylor Bloomquist's 6 block assists were tops for Sacred Heart and Joshua Ayzenberg notched a game-best 17 digs for the Pioneers.
 
NJIT took the first-set lead for good at 11-10 and sailed to a 25-16 victory behind Jurko's 5 kills in 9 attempts.
 
In the second set, the Highlanders fell behind to stay at 5-6 and went on to defeat, 20-25.
 
The third set was the closest of the night, with the visiting Pioneers prevailing 25-23 to go up 2-1 in sets. The Highlanders were down 15-19, but they got back to within a point of the lead twice after that and trailed 23-24 after an SHU service error. But Alcala secured set point with a kill.
 
After Zardo gave Sacred Heart a 1-0 lead to begin the fourth set, NJIT rallied for three points and soon grew its lead to 9-4 after a service ace for Thele.
 
The Highlanders were never threatened late and they secured the 25-16 win in the fourth set by scoring the last three points, two of which came on Goodridge kills.
 
In the fifth set, NJIT got a 2-0 lead on a kill by Anthony and then a block by the combo of Anthony and There and the Highlanders eventually went up 4-1.
 
Sacred Heart never got closer than two points the rest of the way and Goodridge iced the 15-11 win on his 18th kill of the night.
 
With the first win in the books, NJIT will aim to level its EIVA record at 2-2 when it hosts Harvard at 4 pm on Saturday in the Fleisher Athletic Center.