NEWARK, NJ – No match was won by more than four in a close 3-1 (25-21, 26-28, 23-25, 28-30) loss for NJIT men's volleyball to McKendree on Saturday night at the Fleisher Athletic Center.

Jabarry Goodridge and TJ Jurko led the Highlanders (2-13) in the four set match. Junior Goodridge tallied a match-high 25 kills hitting .500 on the night while also adding six serving aces and seven digs. Senior Jurko posted 23 kills and 11 digs. Freshman Chris Wise had a match-high 15 digs while sophomore Cameron Tait made a match-high 53 assists.

For the Bearcats (5-6) junior Wyatt Patterson recorded 18 kills while sophomore Jared Wilcox added 15 more. Sophomores Brendan Schmidt led all players with 10 blocks, while Evan Lockwood had nine digs and Ian Zalewski accumulated 46 assists.

In the set with the biggest margin 25-21, the Highlanders would pick up their only win of the night. The match started close and NJIT was able to pull away after scoring four points at the end of the set. Up by one, the Highlanders received three of Goodridge's nine kills and a kill from Jurko to give them a 24-19 lead that they would never let up.

The second set would go into extra points, as McKendree would take the 28-26 win. The Highlanders went up 10-4 early in the set before the Bearcats would make their comeback. With two attacking errors by NJIT and three straight kills, McKendree brought themselves back into the game 12-11. The set was back and forth until the very end, when Bearcat Wilcox had one of his four kills of the set and NJIT sealed their fate with an attack error.

The Highlanders were down early in the third set and were able to gain a couple of three point rally's to bring them back into the game. Despite seven kills by Goodridge NJIT couldn't hold on and dropped the third set 23-25 to McKendree.

During the fourth and final set of the match the score went back and forth favoring each team along the way. After a big serving ace from TJ Jurko, and a serving error by the Bearcats the score was tied at 28. But on a serving error by the Highlanders and a block assist by Dustin Borenstein and Schmidt, McKendree would take the set 30-28.

The Highlanders will host Holy Names (CA) on March 8 at 7pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center.