Postgame Audio with Coach Trevino

NEWARK, N.J. (February 27, 2016) – The fourth-ranked Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team continued its remarkable 2016 season Saturday in The Golden Dome Arena, sweeping Thiel College in Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) action, 3-0.
 
Rutgers-Newark has now won its last eight outings which matches its longest winning streak of the season, improving to 16-1 overall and 5-1 in the CVC. Thiel drops to 1-9 overall and 1-5 in the conference.
 
The Scarlet Raiders won by set scores of 25-14, 25-10 and 25-23, finishing the match with a .361 hitting percentage and 13 blocks. Rutgers-Newark held the guests to a .045 attacking percentage, and compiled 55.5 points, 37 kills, five aces, 13 rejections, 34 assists and 23 digs.
 
Sophomore outside Corey Pieper led the offense with 12 kills by way of a .476 hitting percentage, adding three digs, two blocks and two aces to his line, while sophomore Francisco Bruno – making his first start of the season – had eight kills (.353) four blocks and two digs. Senior middle Cody Chidsey had six kills (.364), five blocks and two digs, and junior middle Nick Kuti finished with four kills (.429), three aces, six blocks and three digs. Junior outside Jack Fredricks tallied five kills, two blocks and a dig, and senior libero Quocmy Nguyen had four assists and four digs. Setting the Scarlet Raiders to 37 kills and the previously mentioned .361 hitting percentage was senior Kevin McCandless who finished with 30 assists, a team-high five digs, two blocks and one kill.
 
Leading the Tomcats was junior outside Cody Patterson who recorded 12 kills, and junior opposite Nate Roche who had eight kills, two assists and four digs.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Thiel 14
Two kills from Bruno and Pieper had the Raiders off and running as part of a 7-1 run to open an early 9-3 lead, and a 5-1 rally later in the set put Rutgers-Newark up 10 at 23-13 before a Pieper hammer and Thiel error closed it out.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Thiel 10
The teams traded points to start before an 8-1 run helped Rutgers open a 12-5 edge, getting two aces from Kuti and a kill from Bruno in the latter stages of the rally. Thiel would find its way into double digits but R-N scored the final five points in the set – punctuated by a Pieper kill – to go on top 2-0.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Thiel 23
The Tomcats opened an early 9-6 lead in the third, but three-straight R-N points featuring kills from Pieper and Chidsey tied things up, and moments later a 6-1 run gave the Scarlet Raiders a 15-11 edge.
 
The lead would move to six at several points before Thiel came back and made things interesting, tying the score at 23 with a 6-0 run. However, McCandless set Chidsey to give R-N match point, and he then set sophomore Justin Sandy for the clincher and the 16th win of the season.
 
Rutgers-Newark started the season with eight-straight victories, before falling in a CVC road match at Stevenson University who is now ranked seventh in the nation. The Scarlet Raiders immediately got back on track with a 3-0 sweep of Cairn and have now won eight in a row dating back to February 9 – including five in the conference. Over the that period, Rutgers has dropped just one set in all, hitting .273 or better in every match and over .300 in 6-of-8.
 
The Scarlet Raiders will welcome NCAA Division I foe New Jersey Institute of Technology to The Golden Dome Tuesday night at 7 p.m. for a non-conference match.