Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Harvard swept visiting NJIT 3-0 Saturday afternoon at Harvard's Malkin Athletic Center in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) men's volleyball action.
 
Harvard (8-4 overall, 6-1 in the EIVA) won in straight sets, 25-16, 25-19 and 25-14.  The visiting Highlanders drop to 5-6 overall and 0-5 in the EIVA.
 
Brothers DJ White, a junior, and Casey White, a freshman, led the way for Harvard, which is off to its best starter ever in EIVA play with the sweep of NJIT on Saturday.
 
DJ White, one of the top high school players in the country at Mira Costa High School in California and a member of age group United States men's national teams, is a two-time All-EIVA honoree in two seasons with the Crimson.
 
On Saturday, he recorded a match-best and season-high 18 kills, more than twice as many as anyone in the match aside from his younger brother's 11 kills. DJ made just two errors in the attack and posted a .593 attack percentage in 27 swings. He also had a pair of block assists.
 
Casey White, an American Volleyball Coaches Association first-team All-America in 2013 for Mira Costa High, added 11 kills with 3 errors and 20 attempts (.400).
 
Immediately before DJ White came on the scene, Harvard was 1-7 in the EIVA in 2011. But the Crimson improved to 8-4 last year (18-6 overall) and have lost only to national powers Long Beach State, Lewis, Loyola Chicago (currently #1) and Penn State (only EIVA loss) this season.
 
Caleb Zimmick, a 6-foot-9 junior middle, was also a force against NJIT on both sides of the net, collecting a match-best 5 blocks (all block assists) and putting down 6 kills, with only one error. Senior opposite Nick Madden added 7 kills to Harvard's attack.
 
Freshman setter Nick Bendell recorded a match-best 37 assists for Harvard. On defense, senior libero Chris Gibbons had 15 digs and Madden added 12. Bendel also had four blocks (1 solo, 3 assisted)
 
Freshman Jabarry Goodridge led the Highlanders with 8 kills while libero  Daniel Leung, who played in only one set Saturday, recorded a team-high 5 digs defensively.
 
Goodridge coupled 3 errors with his 8 kills in 24 attempts, while Kajetan Borecki posted 7 kills with two errors and Raphael Anthony had 5 kills and one error. Zak Robben had 16 assists, while Ryan Thomas recorded the only service ace for NJIT.
 
Luke Robbe was the top blocker for the Highlanders with a block solo and a block assist.
 
The Highlanders took the first point of the day, but Harvard responded with five points in a row and never looked back, dominating the rest of the way and leading by at least five from 14-9 on.
 
The second set was the most competitive of the day, with nine ties up to 10-10, but Zimmick broke the tie with a kill and NJIT had attack errors on the next two points and trailed the rest of the way.
 
The Highlanders got within a point at 14-15, but Harvard score three straight. NJIT later got as close as 17-20, but that was all.
 
In the third set, NJIT made a small early run, tying the score at 3-3 after having lost the first three points. Down, 3-7, NJIT fought back into a 7-7 tie and there were ties at 8-8 and 9-9 before Casey White broke the tie for good with a kill that made it 10-9 for the Crimson.
 
Harvard kept going with a 9-2 spurt for a 19-11 lead and continued, clinching the match with a 6-1 finish.
 
The schedule doesn't get easier for NJIT, which visits Princeton on Tuesday at 7 pm. Princeton is 4-1 in the EIVA, having swept the home weekend series by defeating Penn State 3-2 on Friday and then sweeping Saint Francis, PA on Saturday. The win over Penn State snapped a 35-match losing streak for the Tigers against #10-ranked Penn State, which has won the last 15 consecutive EIVA titles.