CAMBRIDGE, MA—The NJIT men's volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 20-25 and 25-19) decision at Harvard Saturday in the Highlanders' season finale.
Win the win, Harvard (13-10, 9-5 EIVA) clinches its fifth-straight EIVA Tournament appearance and will be the third-seed in the 2016 EIVA Tournament hosted by Penn State.
Harvard senior outside hitter Branden Clemens recorded a match-high 18 kills and four blocks, while junior outside hitter Casey White followed with 14 kills and four blocks of his own. Brad Gretsch and Riley Moore each had a match-high of five blocks apiece for the Crimson and setter Marko Kostich piled up 37 assists and also tallied a career-high of five aces.
NJIT concludes the 2016 season, 8-18 overall and 7-7 in the conference, falling to fifth place in the EIVA standings after losing its last four league matches and its last five overall.
The Highlanders were led by senior captain
TJ Jurko, playing in his final collegiate match, with a team-high 14 kills. Classmate
Raphael Anthony paced the Highlanders with four block assists. Junior outside hitter
Jabarry Goodridge finished with nine kills and three digs.
NJIT used two setters in the match – freshman
Ricardo Whitaker and sophomore
Cameron Tait. Whitaker paced the team with 18 assists followed by 10 from Tait in two sets.
The Highlanders held a slight 6-5 advantage in the service ace category, paced Jurko and
Luke Robbe, with two apiece, while Harvard's Kostich notched four aces.
Freshman libero
Chris Wise recorded a match-best 15 digs for the Highlanders.
Harvard dominated the first frame, owning a .400 hitting percentage to the Highlanders -.040 and finished the set on a 12-6 spurt, securing the first set, 25-19.
In the second set, Harvard scored the opening three points and would later still hold a three-point advantage, 10-7. NJIT went on a 3-1 run to pull within one, 10-11, on a kill by Goodridge. Harvard went on a 6-2 run, extending its lead to, 17-12, resulting in an NJIT timeout. The Highlanders got as close as four, 15-19, on a kill by Anthony, but Harvard finished the set on a 6-2 run, to go up in sets 2-0 after a comfortable 25-17 victory.
NJIT staved off a sweep by hitting a match-best .276 in the third frame, which saw eight ties and three lead changes. After a 15-15 tie, the Highlanders used a 5-1 spurt to go ahead, 20-16 and went on to win, 25-20.
In the final set, NJIT led early on, 10-6, resulting in a Harvard timeout. Out of the timeout, the Crimson scored five straight, for an 11-10 lead. The set saw five more ties, the final at 19 all, but the Crimson scored seven unanswered points to claim the 25-19 victory.
Notes
The Highlanders defeated Princeton twice in the same regular season – last time NJIT beat Princeton twice in the same year was 2008, but it took the Highlanders three matches to do it in that season.
Longest win streak (six matches) since 2007, when the Highlanders won six in a row to open the season.
Jurko finishes his career with 1,099 kills, 499 digs and 113 service aces. Jurko hit the 1,000 kill plateau this season behind a 16-kill performance in the Highlanders thrilling 3-2 victory at Princeton on March 22.
Goodridge recorded double-digit kills in 21-out-of-23 matches this season, including five 20+ performances and career-best 30 kills vs. Princeton. Selected Sports Imports/AVCA Division I-II Player of the Week, marking the second honor for NJIT and their first as a Division I institution.
