FAIRFAX, VA--The NJIT men's volleyball team won its sixth straight match of the season with a 3-1 victory over No. 14 George Mason Friday evening EIVA men's volleyball action at the Recreation Athletic Complex.
The victory was the sixth in a row for the Highlanders, which are ranked #12 in the latest AVCA Division I-II coaches poll, improve to 8-3 overall and stand at 8-1 in EIVA action.
George Mason won the first set 25-19 but the Highlanders bounced back and won the next three, 25-19, 25-23 and 25-23.
The Highlanders finished with a .337 hitting percentage with 43 kills, 10 team blocks and seven service aces.
Jens Feldthus led the Highlanders with 12 kills, a .455 hitting percentage, five digs and four service aces.
Middle Martin de Chavarria combined for a .615 hitting percentage with eight kills and three total blocks while Alvaro Gimeno and Julian Meissner each added nine kills for the visitors. Gimeno finished with a .350 hitting percentage and three block assists while Meissner posted six block assists.
Libero Joe Kennedy and Feldthus each notched five digs as graduate student Luca Berger led the Highlanders in front of the net with seven block assists. Freshman Griffin Fieseler and senior Zachary Hresko split time at the setting position, piling up 18 and 14 assists respectively.
Hayden Wagner led all players with a match-best 19 kills followed by Omar Hoyos with 13. Zach Talamoa just missed recording a double-double with a match-best 46 assists and nine digs. Sam Greenslade combined for a match-high 12 digs for the Patriots.
George Mason got off to a quick 8-3 start in the first set but the Highlanders inched its way back into the set, closing the gap to two, 14-12 ,on a kill by Julian Meissner. The Patriots used a 6-2 run to extend its lead five, 19-14. A block assist by Luca Berger and Alvaro Gimeno sparked three straight points for the Highlanders, slimming the Patriot lead to two, 19-17. The Patriots went ahead by four, 24-20, on a kill by Zach Talamoa for set point. After a point for the Highlanders, George Mason secured the 25-21 victory on an NJIT service error.
In the second frame, NJIT went ahead 4-2 and later used a 7-0 rally in the mid-teens, taking a 16-8 lead, resulting in a George Mason timeout. The Patriots battled their way back into the set, closing the Highlander gap to five, 20-15, on a kill by Omar Hoyos. NJIT scored the final two points of the frame, knotting the match at 1-1 with a 25-19 win.
An early back-and-forth affair early in the third frame, George Mason took a 12-8 lead and later went up 15-11 on a short, 3-1 run. NJIT used a 9-4 spurt, capped by a kill by Gimeno, resulting in a George Mason timeout for a one-point lead, 20-19. The Highlanders closed out the frame on a 3-1 spurt, including back-to-back points from a kill by Meissner and an ace by Feldthus, his fourth of the match for a 25-23 win.
In the fourth set, George Mason knotted the early score at 9-all, after using a 4-1 run to go ahead 12-10, resulting in a NJIT timeout. NJIT used a 4-1 run of their own capped on a kill by setter Zachary Hresko, 14-13, resulting in a Patriots timeout. George Mason scored three straight points and pushed its lead to 17-15 on a kill by Hoyos.
A triple block by NJIT from Meissner, Berger and Alvaro sparked a 3-0 run as the Patriots called their final timeout with NJIT leading 19-18. George Mason went ahead 21-20 behind a pair of aces from Patriots serving specialist Richie Hoff, resulting in an NJIT timeout. The set saw three more ties, the final at 23-all as Gimeno's kill gave NJIT a 24-23 advantage and a Patriot error secured the Highlanders 25-23 win.
The two teams will conclude its two-match EIVA weekend series on Saturday at 7pm on ESPN+.
