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NEWARK, NJ—The reports from the road are encouraging. And now the NJIT men's volleyball team will bring its act home, hosting Princeton on Friday at 7 pm in Fleisher Athletic Center in what will be the 2015 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association opener for both teams.
 
Princeton reached the 2014 EIVA championship match, where it lost to perennial champion Penn State. NJIT is aiming for its first EIVA postseason appearance since 2008, when it was a tournament semifinalist.
 
The Highlanders are 4-2 with four straight wins—three in three days in the Carolinas January 29 to 31. In winning the four consecutive matches, the Highlanders lost just one of 13 set played, but Princeton is a formidable foe, despite a deceptive 2-4 record coming into Friday's EIVA opener.
 
While the EIVA is the strongest men's volleyball grouping in the East, the sport lacks parity among teams in the top college level (the NCAA combines Division I and II into what it terms Division I-II for men's volleyball) and Princeton's six matches were all played in California, where the level of play is at its highest.
 
The Tigers defeated Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego, while losing to Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and UC Irvine. All but UC San Diego were ranked in the National Top 15 at the time they faced Princeton, which is receiving votes, but not ranked in the weekly American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll (Harvard, at #15, is the top-ranked EIVA team in the Feb. 2 poll, with perennial EIVA champ Penn State and Princeton "also receiving votes".
 
Senior Cody Kessel of the Tigers leads the nation in points per set (5.5). He was All-EIVA first team and honorable mention All-America as a junior. His classmate, middle blocker Will Siroky, is another talented veteran for coach Sam Shweisky. On defense, senior libero Tony Ensbury was All-EIVA first team in 2014.
 
Kessel was the kills leader for Princeton in 2014, but the next two on last season's kills list, Devin Stearns and Pat Schwagler, have not been factors. Stearns (2nd-team All-EIVA in 2014) missed the first three of Princeton's six matches and Schwagler graduated. Freshman Kendall Ratter, a standout Junior Nationals player, has helped pick up some of the slack with a pair of double-figure kills matches.
 
NJIT, in its first season under new coach Danny Goncalves, has shown a balanced attack with Jabarry Goodridge (68 kills), Kajetan Borecki (44 kills), and TJ Jurko (53 kills) all showing potency from the outside.
 
Ryan Thomas, the current EIVA Defensive Player of the Week, has 17 blocks and owns an impressive .489 hitting percentage (28 kills, 5 errors, 47 attempts).
 
Setter Zak Robben is averaging 9.20 assists per set. Five different Highlanders have at least 21 digs for the season, topped by libero Oren Zyndorf's 49.
 
NJIT and Princeton will play twice this season, home-and-home. The last NJIT win in the series came in 2102 at home (3-1). Last season, the Tigers won both meetings in straight sets.

Live game coverage (real-time in-match stats and live video) will be available on www.njithighlanders.com.