NEWARK, N.J. – Despite a career-high 27 kills from Christopher DeLucie, the Sacred Heart men's volleyball team could not overcome an NJIT comeback, falling to the Highlanders in five sets on Friday night in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association play. The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for the Pioneers, who drop to 3-2 in the EIVA and 3-9 overall. 

Down two sets to one after SHU took a thrilling third, 25-23, NJIT (1-10, 1-2 EIVA) cruised to a 25-16 victory in the fourth to force a winner-take-all fifth set. The Highlanders carried that momentum into fifth, scoring four of the first five points. The Pioneers did all they could to comeback, pulling within one three times, including as late as 11-10 on a DeLucie kill. The early deficit proved to be too much though, as Brad Thele sparked a run of three consecutive points with two kills to put the match away.

DeLucie's 27 kills were nine more than any other player, and Sacred Heart had two more kills than NJIT, 59-57, but the Pioneers could not overcome a blocking attack that recorded 15 rejections at the net. The Highlanders also outhit SHU .342-.242, swinging at least .214 in all each set, including .429 in the final two sets. The Pioneers hit .441 in the two sets they won, the second and third, but just .082 in the other three. NJIT also had seven more service aces, 8-1. 

Joshua Ayzenberg and Taylor Bloomquist also set a new career-high on the night, leading all players with 17 digs and six block assists, respectively.  Austin Arcala had 15 kills for SHU, but no other Pioneer had more than five.

Eight different Highlanders recorded a block, led by Luke Robbe's match-high 3.5, which included two solo blocks. Raphael Anthony added five block assists. Jobarray Goodridge led NJIT with 18 kills, while TJ Jurko added 13. Cameron Tait had a match-high 50 assists.

Sacred Heart remains in New Jersey, completing the EIVA's Garden State road swing at Princeton tomorrow at 4 pm.

How it Happened

• First set (16-25)- Down by as many as three early, Sacred Heart came back and took its third lead of the set when an Eduardo Zardo kill made it 10-9. NJIT made its run there, scoring the next eight points to run away with the first. Five of the points were on Pioneer errors, with the other two coming courtesy of Jurko service aces, including one to end the run and make the score 17-10.
• Second set (25-20)- SHU quickly erased an early 5-3 deficit with four consecutive kills by DeLucie, Zardo and Doug Dzema, and yet another from DeLucie, taking the lead for good. NJIT got as close as one twice, the second time at 8-7, but the Pioneers used an 8-2 run to pull away. The stretch was yet again capped by four straight kills, this time from Arcala, DeLucie, Michael Comens, and then Arcala again.
• Third set (25-23)- The first 26 points of the set saw 13 ties and neither team leading by more than one point.  Sacred Heart finally broke that pattern with three points in a row, taking advantage of back-to-back attack errors to go up 15-13. The lead even reached as high as four points, 19-15, when two more errors capped a 7-2 stretch. NJIT called timeout and would regroup, scoring six of the next eight points to tie it for 14^th time, 21-21. Wesley Blodig responded with a kill to give the Pioneers the lead for good, with Arcala finally putting an end to the set with a kill five points later.
• Fourth set (16-25)- It was all NJIT in the fourth set, with the Highlanders quickly jumping out to a 9-4 lead with back-to-back aces from Thele and the Pioneers would get no closer than four the remainder of the set.