FORT WAYNE, IN – Sophomore outside hitter Marcin Midura paced Rutgers-Newark with 13 kills, but IPFW rallied for a 3-1 men's volleyball victory in the Gates Sports Center. Set scores were 28-30, 30-26, 30-26, 30-24 in the non-conference battle. 

IPFW 3, Rutgers-Newark 1

Junior setter Liran Shapiro collected 49 assists as the Scarlet Raiders (1-3) hit a solid .254 as a unit and ruled the net by forging a 13 to six edge. But the Mastodons (3-3) used 13 aces and 45 digs to offset the Raider attack. 

Senior middle hitter Jon Keller notched 12.5 points on eight kills, an ace, a solo block and five assisted blocks while senior outside hitter Nate Stott totaled eight kills on .294 hitting, an ace and three assisted blocks. Stott also had a team-high six digs. 

Rookie middle hitter Mark Kochan hit a sizzling .545 with seven kills and one error on just 11 swings while adding a solo block and five assisted blocks to give Rutgers-Newark four players in double-digit points. Junior right side Dane Mulligan tallied nine points on seven kills, an ace and a pair of assisted blocks. 

Sophomore outside hitter Eduardo Hernandez came off the bench to record seven kills, an ace and two assisted blocks in just two sets. Freshman libero Tomas Goldsmith joined Midura and Mulligan with five digs apiece. 

Junior outside hitter Darryl Shank had match highs of 25 kills and six aces for IPFW while sophomore setter Dan Mader rang up 57 assists and chipped in a match-high 14 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Ivan Matos netted 17 kills with an ace for the Mastodons while freshman opposite Elon Fyfield had 11 kills, an ace and three assisted blocks. Senior middle blocker Oliver Kook totaled 14.0 points on nine kills, three aces and four assisted blocks as IPFW also had four player in double-digit points. 

The Raiders climbed out of a 25-20 hole to win the opening set. Midura, Kochan and Stott had kills during the closing 10-3 run as Rutgers-Newark capitalized on six Mastodon errors. Mulligan finished the frame with a service ace. 

Shank had back-to-back kills to put IPFW into the lead for good at 24-22 in the second set, and then had three kills and an ace to close out the frame. 

In the third set, Shank served four consecutive points – including a pair of aces – as the Mastodons took a 20-17 lead. The Raiders trimmed the deficit to one point four times, but Shank had three kills and an ace to notch IPFW's final four points in the set. 

After hitting .286, .273 and .435 in the first three frames, the Scarlet Raiders slipped to .103 in the final set while the Mastodons hit a solid .312. 

Rutgers-Newark completes its weekend at Ball State tomorrow night with a 7:30 p.m. match.