Highlights

NEWARK, N.J. (February 9, 2016) - After falling for the first time in 2016 on Saturday, the Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team came out with a vengeance, sweeping Cairn University 3-0 Wednesday night in The Golden Dome Arena.

The Scarlet Raiders - now ranked fifth in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) - improve to 9-1 overall and even their Contintental Volleyball Conference (CVC) record at 1-1. Cairn drops to 0-2 in the CVC and 2-4 overall.

The set scores were 25-8, 25-17 and 25-14 as R-N out-pointed the Highlanders 75-39 in what was a dominating performance offensively, defensively and in the specialty areas.

Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 8
Behind the service game of senior opposite Travis Mintzer and sophomore outside Corey Pieper, the Scarlet Raiders jumped out to a 9-1 lead, getting kills from sophomore outside Jack Fredricks (two), Mintzer, Chidsey and Pieper in the process.

Later in the set an ace from McCandless - R-N's third of the set - pushed the edge to 11 at 15-4, and back-to-back denials made it 18-6 and forced a second Highlander timeout.

Rutgers kept the pressure on, closing out the first with three-straight points, the final two coming via a Mintzer ace down the far side and a Pieper kill.

Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 17
R-N scored 4-of-5 to start the second as Pieper mixed in a kill and an ace, and forced a timeout after ripping off three-straight kills (Mintzer, Pieper, junior middle Nick Kuti) to make it a 9-3 set score.

Behind the serve of freshman setter Matthew Gump, Cairn trimmed the Scarlet Raider edge to two at 12-10, before a Mintzer kill slowed the momentum and ignited a 4-0 spurt to push the lead back to six (16-10). R-N extended and Cairn fought back within four (21-17), but it was far too little too late as a big-time hammer from freshman outside Marcus Molina closed things out at 25-17.

Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 14
The Scarlet Raider defense helped the hosts to a 6-1 lead in the third, as Chidsey and McCandless recorded a pair of combo blocks and Mintzer worked in a kill. Rutgers continued to apply pressure, going on top 10-2 following back-to-back aces from Pieper and a massive hammer from Fredricks.

Cairn put together a rally on the service game of senior outside David Dager, but the Scarlet Raiders made plays down the stretch and cruised to the 25-14 set win and 3-0 sweep.

Rutgers-Newark finished with 62 points, 37 kills, nine service aces, 16 blocks, 33 assists and nine digs, while Cairn had 25 points, 17 kills, five aces, three blocks, 17 helpers and nine digs.

Pieper led the Scarlet Raiders with 10 kills (.500), five digs, four aces and four blocks, while Fredricks had eight kills (.500) and five blocks. Mintzer ended his night with eight kills (.500), four blocks and three digs, while Chidsey had five hammers (.667), six blocks and a pair of digs. Kuti had a team-best seven blocks and two kills, Molina had two kills, and McCandless facilitated all of it, notching 30 assists, two aces, four blocks and four digs. Senior libero Quocmy Nguyen played well throughout, tallying seven digs and providing strong defense.

R-N hit .466 overall, committing just 10 errors in the match and converting at .462 and .560 in sets one and two. Cairn hit -.092 overall and had 23 errors.

The Scarlet Raiders return to the action with a CVC road match at Marymount Friday night. Opening serve is set for 7 p.m.