Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Freshman Eddie Rivera had 10 kills in 13 hits without an error to lead visiting IPFW past NJIT in men's volleyball, 3-0 (25-7, 25-15, 25-22), Saturday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
The Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Mastodons dominated the entire first set and most of the second en route to their second 3-0 win over NJIT in as many days as the two teams opened the 2011 season with a pair of weekend matches.
IPFW had a team hitting percentage close to .400, with 39 kills and 8 errors in 78 swings and the visitors dominated at the net on defense, with a 10.5-to-1 team blocking advantage.
In addition to Marin's 10 kills, the winners got 9 kills from sophomore Elon Fyfield. Adam Quinn had 21 assists for IPFW, which also got 11 assists from Dan Mader.
The serving game wasn't significant for either team, as three Mastodons served an ace apiece and NJIT had one ace as a team.
The blocking leaders for IPFW were Phil Peterson with 5 block assists and Fyfield with 4 block assists. Libero Shaun Dryden notched a match-best 8 digs.
Sophomores Kevin Van Oss and Doug Battersby each had solid hitting nights for NJIT, but the rest of the team struggled. Van Oss had 9 kills and 3 errors, and Battersby had 6 kills and 1 errors, but NJIT's final team hitting total showed a negative attack of 24 kills and 25 errors.
Matthew Lui and Adam Gustafson collected 11 assists apiece and Lui had the only ace for NJIT.
On defense, libero Brady Smith finished with 7 digs, while Andrei Stoyanow and Battersby combined for the only Highlanders block.
IPFW crushed NJIT in the first set, as the Highlanders looked nothing like the outfit that had been unfortunate in losing Friday's first set, 24-26. NJIT picked up its game a bit in the second set, but needed a strong finish to produce a 15-25 loss.
The third set was the closest of the night, as IPFW used 10 different players and sat senior all-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association player Darryl Shank, who had a relatively quiet weekend as it was. Three players who started the match for the Mastodons played in the third set.
NJIT scored the first point of the set, but trailed for most of the early portion and was down four as late as 15-19. But the Highlanders rallied for five straight points and a 20-19 advantage after three straight Mastodon hitting errors.
Unable to go up by more than a single point, NJIT took what would be its final lead, 21-20, on Battersby's sixth kill of the night. IPFW ran off three points to claim the lead for good, before Dhruv Lad pulled the Highlanders back within a point, at 22-23.
The Mastodons finished off the match with a kill from Anthony Randolph and then a three-man block by Dan Mader, Peterson, and Jonathan Meyer.
NJIT will play its next four matches away from home, beginning with a 7 pm match on Thursday at Washington Adventist in Takoma Park, MD.
