Box score

BRISTOL, TN—Visiting NJIT took the first two sets of its non-conference men's volleyball match at King College, but the home team pulled even, taking then next two sets before the Highlanders claimed the match with a 15-13 win in the fifth set.
 
NJIT, which lost a five-set match in the first leg of its weekend road trip Friday night at Lees-McRae in Banner Elk, NC, salvaged a split of the Spring Break trip, defeating King, 25-18, 25-22, 19-25, 20-25, 15-13.
 
Saturday night's road win was the third of the year for NJIT, which got its other two away victories a few blocks down Warren Street at Rutgers-Newark (January 21 and February 15). The Highlanders, 8-11 overall, are 4-3 at home, 3-7 away, and 1-1 in neutral site matches. The loss drops King to 7-17.
 
King actually earned more of its points than did NJIT, as the Tornado posted more kills (59-53), more aces (2-1), and more team blocks (9-8). But King cost itself a few more points on errors, particularly on service errors, where the Tornado committed seven more miscues than the Highlanders and that was enough to tip the scales in a match where the deciding set was a two-point affair.
 
The only NJIT player with a double-figure kills total was freshman Chris Kaepernick, who finished with 18. Kaepernick had kills on each of NJIT's last five points in the 15-13 win in the deciding set. Doug Battersby added eight kills, while Herman Kantushov and Adam Feehan notched seven kills apiece. NJIT used 14 players in the match and 11 of them had at least one kill.
 
Senior Adam Gustafson, who played in four of the sets, led NJIT with 33 assists and Battersby had the only service ace for the Highlanders.
 
On defense, Brady Smith was the only Highlander with double-figure digs (14), although 12 players had at least one dig. Battersby was the blocking leader for NJIT, getting four block solos and a block assist. Six other Highlanders had one block apiece.
 
King had three hitters with double-figures in kills, led by 19 from senior James Friddle, while junior Michael Koebel and senior Eric Glenn each logged 13 kills. Junior Ned Parker and freshman Justin Crane shared setting duties for King and Parker dished out 32 assists and Crane got 24. Koebel and Friddle accounted for the two Tornado service aces.
 
Senior Brandon Rorer posted a match-high 21 digs for the home team and Friddle added 12. Glenn and Matthew Harper shared the individual blocking lead for King, with three each. Harper had two block solos and a block assist, while Glenn had two block assists and a block solo.
 
NJIT went ahead to stay in the first set at 2-1 and used a 6-2 spurt to build a 15-9 advantage. The Highlanders also scored four of the last points in their 25-18 first-set win.
 
The second set was closer, 25-22, but NJIT went ahead to stay at 13-12, starting a 3-0 run. Tellingly, seven of NJIT's last 13 points in the set were the result of unforced King errors.
 
King built a 13-6 lead in the third set and it was still 18-11 when the Highlanders closed to 16-19 with a 5-1 run. The Tornado answered with a 3-0 run of its own and coasted to a 25-19 win.
 
The home team led the fourth set, 16-11, but NJIT trimmed the deficit to 14-16, before the Tornado spurt for five straight points and a 21-14 advantage. Next came a 5-0 Highlander outburst that included four straight King errors, two unforced and two on attack errors into NJIT blocks. Leading 21-19, the Tornado scored four of the next five points and took the set, 25-20.
 
King took a 4-1 lead to open the deciding set, but NJIT fought back and knotted the score at 8-8. King reclaimed the lead, 9-8, on a Highlander attack error, but then NJIT ran off straight points starting with a kill for Kantushov and continuing with three consecutive kills by Kaepernick for a 12-9 lead.
 
King used a 4-1 surge to tie the score at 13-13, before Kaepernick posted back-to-back kills to secure a 15-13 win in the deciding set.
 
NJIT will return to action on Friday with a 7 pm home match in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center against perennial Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association champion Penn State, ranked eighth in the latest AVCA national Division I-II weekly poll. The Nittany Lions defeated the Highlanders, 3-0, when the teams played at Penn State on February 11.