AVCA Poll | CVC Standings
Men's Volleyball Highlights
LEXINGTON, Ky. (February 16, 2016) - Rutgers University-Newark finds itself ranked fifth in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III Top 15, it was announced Tuesday afternoon.
Springfield College tops the poll, SUNY New Paltz is No. 2, Carthage is No. 3 and Nazareth College is No. 4. CVC rival Stevenson University is up to No. 10.
The Scarlet Raiders played extremely well last week, going 3-0 in the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) to improve to 3-1 in the league and 11-1 overall. After suffering its only loss of the season at Stevenson University, Rutgers-Newark was won three-straight and come out on top in nine of the last 10 sets overall.
An extremely balanced team, the Scarlet Raiders already have five players with more than 80 kills and three with over 100. Senior opposite
Travis Mintzer leads the team with 126, and right behind him is junior outside
Jack Fredricks (117) and sophomore outside
Corey Pieper (115). Mintzer is hitting .343 overall, while senior middle
Cody Chidsey (85 kills), is converting at a lofty .420 clip and junior middle
Nick Kuti (86 kills) is at .321.
In addition to the balance that keeps defenses guessing, the Scarlet Raider team hitting percentage of .323 can also be attributed to the expert setting of senior facilitator
Kevin McCandless. McCandless has already dished out 454 assists on the season for an average of 10.32 per set.
As a team, Rutgers-Newark is atop the CVC in hitting percentage (.323), kills per set (12.62) and won-loss percentage (.917) and sits second in the conference in assists per set (11.40) and blocks per set (2.29). Nationally, the Scarlet Raiders are No. 2 in won-loss percentage, No. 4 in hitting percentage, No. 7 in kills per set, No. 11 in assists per set and No. 13 in blocks per set.
In terms of individual statistics, Kuti is fourth nationally in blocks per set (second in the CVC), averaging 1.23, and McCandless is eighth in assists per set (second in the CVC). Chidsey finds himself eighth in the country and third in the conference in hitting percentage, with Mintzer cracking the top-40 (No. 32) in hitting percentage.
Next up for the Scarlet Raiders is a non-conference home match in The Golden Dome Arena Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against Ramapo College. All the action will be broadcast live at
www.rutgersnewarkathletics.com/watch.
Rutgers-Newark in the AVCA Ranks This Year...Preseason - No. 8 (0-0)
Poll 1 - No. 5 (4-0)
Poll 2 - No. 3 (7-0)
Poll 3 - No. 5 (8-1)
Poll 4 - No. 5 (11-1)
Next Poll Feb. 23
