Highlights
NEWARK, NJ—Trailing 2-1 after three sets, visiting Springfield, the second-ranked team in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III national poll, came back to sweep the final two sets, putting a damper on NJIT's Senior Day on Saturday in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
Springfield is a nine-time Division III national champion, including 2012, 2013, and 2014, when the NCAA first sponsored a separate DIII national championship (previously, the NCAA men's volleyball championship encompassed teams from all three divisions; in 2012, the NCAA split the championships into Division I-II and Division III; prior to 2012, the Division III championship was sponsored by equipment manufacturer Molten).
The Pride raised its record to 26-3 and is now 2-0 vs. Division I-II teams, having previously defeated Harvard on February 6.
NJIT, which honored seniors
TJ Jurko and
Raphael Anthony in pre-match ceremonies before the final home contest, is 8-16, with three consecutive losses after it won six in a row between March 8 and April 1.
Saturday's match was close, the Highlanders scoring a 25-21 win in the opening set, followed by a 25-22 win for Springfield. NJIT took the third set 25-23, but the Pride rallied to win the fourth set 25-19 and the fifth set 15-13,
The top hitters in the match were Luis Vega of Springfield (24 kills, 6 errors, 44 attempts, .409 attack percentage) and the NJIT senior, Jurko (22 kills, 5 errors, 39 attempts, .436 attack percentage).
The only other Highlander with double-digit kills was
Jabarry Goodridge (14), while Springfield had three other besides Vega in double-figures—Greg Woods (13), Kyle Jasuta (12), and Julian Welsh-White (10).
Springfield's junior setter Luis Garcia Rubio piled up 61 assists, deftly distributing the ball to his array of attackers, and
Cameron Tait led NJIT with 43 assists.
NJIT had five services aces, paced by two from Anthony, who also had six kills and only one error, plus six digs (second on the team) and a team-leading six block assists.
Springfield got three aces from three different men and Ricardo Padilla Ayala was the digs leader for the visiting team with 10. Vega, the match kills leader, also led the way on defense at the net, knocking down nine block assists, while Welsh-White added eight block assists.
Jurko, Anthony, and
Luke Robbe all had three kills in the opening set to key the attack in NJIT's 25-21 victory. The Highlanders also produced seven total team blocks in the set, led by Anthony's four block assists. After getting the seven blocks in the opening set, NJIT produced a total of 5.5 blocks over the remaining four sets.
The second set had 14 ties, but the visitors came out ahead at the end, 25-22. The Highlanders had a 19-18 lead after a Springfield attack error, but the Pride rallied for three unanswered points to go up 21-19. NJIT closed the gap to a single point three more times, but took advantage of NJIT errors for the last two points of the set.
Springfield took an early 4-1 lead in the third set, but the Highlanders drew even at 6-6 for the first of 10 ties in the set. NJIT was ahead 23-21 after a Goodridge kill, but three straight service errors ensued, two by the Highlanders, before Jurko sealed the 25-23 win on a kill.
Springfield evened the match at two sets apiece with a relatively easy 25-19 win that had just two tie scores. Woods and Vega each had five kills in the set and they combined for only one error, as the Pride hit an impressive .567 (19 kills, 2 errors, 30 attempts) in the set.
That brought things down to a deciding fifth set that featured six ties. The Highlanders fell into an early hole, 2-5, but scrapped back to earn a 10-10 tie. There were ties at 11-11 and 12-12, but used a kill by Vega and an attack error by NJIT to get within one of match point, 14-12. Anthony extended his final home match by two more points, as his kill closed the score to 13-14. But Vega notched a kill on the next play to lock up the 15-13 win in the set and the match victory.
NJIT faces a pivotal final weekend when it returns to Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association play on April 15 and 16. The Highlanders will visit Sacred Heart in Connecticut on Friday at 7 pm and then continue to Cambridge, MA, for a 4 pm Saturday match at Harvard.
The Highlanders, who were 7-3 in the EIVA after they topped Saint Francis on April 1, have slipped into a tie for fourth place with Harvard, with each team owning a 7-5 league record heading to the final weekend. Saint Francis is in second place at 8-4 and George Mason is 7-4 with a Saturday night match scheduled at home vs. Princeton.
NJIT posted 3-2 win over Sacred Heart and Harvard when the Highlanders played the two adversaries on February 26 and 27, respectively, in the first leg of their home-and-home series.
