Post Game Interview

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT scored its second come-from-behind 3-2 men's volleyball win this weekend, defeating Harvard 22-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20, and 15-9, in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association action late Saturday afternoon in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
With the victory, the Highlanders leveled their EIVA record at 2-2 and raised their overall mark to 2-10. Harvard, which began its weekend trip to New Jersey with a 3-0 win at Princeton on Friday night, is 4-2 in the EIVA and 7-6 overall after losing to the Highlanders.
 
NJIT, which lost all 10 of its opening matches, including back-to-back 3-1 defeats last weekend at Penn State and Saint Francis to begin EIVA play last weekend, got its first victory Friday night at home against Sacred Heart. In that one, NJIT took the first set, lost the second and third and then rallied to pull out the match with wins in the fourth and fifth sets.
 
The pattern was slightly different on Saturday, as Harvard won the first set, NJIT won the second, and Harvard won the third. Facing a defeat with one more lost set, NJIT fought back to win the final two sets for another match victory.
 
Jabarry Goodridge led the NJIT attack with a match-high 20 kills, followed by TJ Jurko (16 kills) and Luke Robbe (10).
 
The Highlanders used two setters, with Cameron Tait notching 29 assists as the starter and Ricardo Whitaker, who entered during the fourth set and stayed on through to the end of the match, picking up 16 assists.
 
NJIT, which had a 9-3 advantage in service aces, got two each from Robbe, Tait, Brad Thele, and Tyler Brandow.
 
On defense, the Highlanders continue to display strong blocking at the net and they had a 14.5-to-12.0 edge in total team blocks on Saturday. Robbe and Raphael Anthony each had 6 block assists, while Goodridge and Thele had 5 block assists apiece.
 
On the floor, Chris Wise had a team-leading 11 digs and Tait had 8, followed by 7 each for Jurko and Thele.
 
Harvard's top hitter was Branden Clemens with 19 kills, followed by 12 for Casey White and 11 for Brad Gretsch.
 
Marko Kostich, the Crimson setter, finished with 31 assists and the three Harvard service aces came from three different men.
 
Clemens led the match with 7 block assists and Trevor Dow added 6, while Clemens came up with 11 digs and White added 9 for the visitors.
 
NJIT got off 10-5 to begin the first set, but Harvard rallied and went ahead for good at 14-13 en route to the 25-22 win, as Clemens notched a kill for set point.
 
The score was the same in the second set. But this time it was NJIT on top, led by 6 kills for Goodridge and 5 for Jurko.
 
The score seesawed with seven early ties before a Goodridge kill made it 10-9. NJIT led the rest of the set and by as many as 6 points, before coming away with the 25-22 win.
 
With the score knotted at 8-8 in the third set, the Crimson rattled off five consecutive points, three on Clemens kills, to gain the upper hand. A later 3-0 burst grew the Harvard lead to 20-14 and the visitors coasted to a 25-19 win in the set.
 
Down in sets, 2-1, NJIT fell behind 7-11 early in the fourth set. However, the Highlanders came back and took a 15-14 lead on a combined block by Goodridge and Anthony, who attended Christ Church Foundation School together in Barbados.
 
The block was part of a 5-0 run that ended with the Highlanders holding the lead, 18-14. They finished off the set on a 3-1 spurt, with set point coming on a Harvard service error.
 
Harvard took the first three points of the deciding set and led 4-1 when NJIT rallied to forge a 4-4 tie. There were later ties at 5-5, 6-6, and 7-7, before Goodridge nailed a kill and then combined the Robbe for a block, giving NJIT a 9-7 edge.
 
A Highlander service error got the visitors back within a point, but the Highlanders ran off three straight points for a 12-8 advantage. The Crimson managed one more point, but NJIT finished off the set and match with three more points, two Goodridge kills sandwiched around a Harvard attack error.
 
NJIT's next match is a non-conference affair, but it will be played in the neighborhood. The Highlanders will head down Warren Street for a visit to Rutgers-Newark on Tuesday at 7 pm.
 
Rutgers-Newark, which sponsored Division I men's volleyball and was a member of the EIVA through the end of the 2014 season, aligned men's volleyball with the rest of its teams in Division III, beginning with the 2015 season.
 
The Scarlet Raiders, coached by former NJIT star Pedro Trevino (Class of 2001), are ranked #4 in the latest national Division III poll, thanks to a 16-1 won-lost record.