NEWARK, NJ – Junior right side Austin Pappas posted 16 kills to help Rutgers-Newark to a 3-0 regular-season ending win over NJIT. Game scores were 25-15, 25-22 and 26-24.

BOX SCORE & PLAY-BY-PLAY

Pappas hit .444 (16 kills, 5 errors, 25 attacks) to help the Scarlet Raiders (16-10) hit .371 as a team behind the setting of senior Jeff Zornig. Zornig tallied 43 assists while roping three aces and getting in on two blocks.

Senior middle hitter Grant Metheny chipped in eight kills and joined Zornig with three aces and two blocks. Junior right side Kenneth de Groh, junior outside hitter Marcin Midura and sophomore middle hitter Brett Pickens added seven kills apiece in the balanced Rutgers-Newark assault. Pappas and de Groh had a match-high seven digs apiece while junior libero Zack Chambers came up with five digs.

Freshman right side Herman Kantushov paced the Highlanders (7-20) with 10 kills and six digs while sophomore outside hitter Kevin Van Oss hit .750 with nine kills and no errors on just a dozen swings.

Rutgers-Newark began and ended its regular season with 3-0 sweeps of NJIT.

Pappas had five kills on six swings and Metheny delivered all three of his aces in game one as the Raiders hit a crisp .583 (16-2-24) to win easily. Pappas then pounded down seven kills and Zornig added a pair of aces to put Rutgers-Newark in control.

But Kantushov had four kills as the Highlanders took a 23-22 lead in the hotly contested third frame. A Metheny kill and an NJIT attack error gave the Raiders match point, but NJIT's Andrei Stoyanow leveled the score at 24-24 with a kill. Pickens put the Raiders up for good with a kill before a Highlander attack error ended the contest.

Rutgers-Newark now has eight days to prepare of its EIVA Championship Tournament opening round contest against Saint Francis University in The Golden Dome. The fourth-seeded Raiders swept the fifth-seeded Red Flash during their home-and-home EIVA Tait regular-season series. First serve is set for 7 p.m.