AVCA Poll
LEXINGTON, Ky. (February 2, 2016) - The Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team rose two spots to No. 3 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll, it was announced Tuesday afternoon.
Rutgers-Newark started the year ranked eighth in the nation after reaching the 'Elite Eight' of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. The Raiders jumped three spots to No. 5 after a 4-0 start to the season that featured a victory over then-second-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology, and they jumped two more spots after going 3-0 in the Clash at Kean Tournament that featured a thrilling five-set triumph over then-No. 3 Nazareth College.
R-N is 7-0 overall and will be looking to move to 8-0 Tuesday night when the Scarlet Raiders head to Jersey City, N.J. for a matchup with non-conference rival New Jersey City University. That match is set for a 7 p.m. opening serve.
Among those seven wins to start the season, Rutgers-Newark has won 21-of-27 sets (21-6) and beaten three teams that were in the NCAA Tournament a year ago (Stevens, Nazareth, Endicott College).
Springfield College remains No. 1 and SUNY New Paltz is No. 2, with R-N three, UC Santa Cruz No. 4 and Nazareth No. 5. The only other Contintental Volleyball Conference (CVC) school in the poll is Stevenson University at No. 13 who the Scarlet Raiders will visit on Saturday night in both school's league opener. The Mustangs are 3-2 overall. Rutgers-Newark and No. 7 Stevens are the only New Jersey institutions in the poll.
Rutgers-Newark is hitting a remarkable .344 this season, out-killing its opponents 353-350 and hammering 13.1 kills per set. R-N is plus-13 in blocking, averaging 2.1 per set and has just three ball handling errors all year.
Five players have more than 50 kills, with senior opposite
Travis Mintzer pacing the Raiders with 79. Sophomore outside
Corey Pieper (73) and junior outside
Jack Fredricks (72) rank two and three on the team in kills and four of the Scarlet Raiders' top-five killers are hitting over .330 this year (senior middle
Cody Chidsey, junior middle
Nick Kuti, Mintzer and Fredricks).
Senior setter
Kevin McCandless has been excellent at the start of the season, setting R-N to one of the top attacks in the nation by averaging 10.59 assists per set and has racked up 286 helpers on the year. Senior libero
Quocmy Nguyen is pacing the diggers with 65 (2.41 per set), and Kuti's 32 total blocks lead the defense in that department.
Rutgers-Newark received 211 total points in the poll, and the No. 3 ranking is the highest in the history of the program.
After the non-conference match at NJCU and the CVC opener at Stevenson, Rutgers-Newark returns home to The Golden Dome Arena on February 9 for a conference matchup against Cairn University.
Rutgers-Newark AVCA Ranks This Year...Preseason - No. 8 (0-0)Poll 1 - No. 5 (4-0)
Poll 2 - No. 3 (7-0)
Next poll Feb. 9
