BRONX, N.Y. (January 27, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team split a tri-match Friday night in the Bronx. The Raiders fell in the opener 3-1 at the hands of Southern Virginia University, but they bounced back with a 3-0 sweep of host Lehman College in the nightcap.
 
Rutgers-Newark is now 1-5 on the young season against an incredibly challenging slate, and the Scarlet Raiders will return to the court on Thursday with a home match against NCAA Division I and same-city-rival New Jersey Institute of Technology.
 
Lehman dropped to 0-4 and SVU is now 4-4.
 
Southern Virginia 3, Rutgers-Newark 1 (25-23, 24-26, 26-24, 25-20)
R-N's opener with the Knights was extremely close, with the first three sets being decided by two points each.
 
The Scarlet Raiders hit .175 overall, racking up 59 points, 49 kills, three aces, seven blocks, 45 assists and 39 digs.
 
Junior outside Corey Pieper continued his sparkling start to the season with 20 kills and a .342 hitting percentage, adding two aces, three digs and three blocks to his line. Junior outside Justin Sandy had 11 kills and eight digs, while junior middle Jalen Sorrell tallied nine winners and five rejections. Sophomore setter Arnan Romua and sophomore Brendon Frank combined for 39 assists, with Romua getting 24 of them, while freshman libero Jake Conners (11) and Frank (eight) lifted 19 digs.
 
SVU totaled 67 points, 53 kills, four aces, 10 blocks, 46 assists and 37 digs, hitting .233 overall and over .300 in the third and fourth.
 
A 6-0 run early in the first gave the Knights a 9-4 edge, but Rutgers-Newark responded to tie the set at 12 after back-to-back aces from Pieper. Later in the set, three-straight from SVU opened a 23-17 lead and a 5-0 run from R-N was just not enough as the Knights closed it out.
 
Rutgers-Newark overcame a 17-11 hole in the second set, outscoring SVU 10-4 down the stretch. Romua served the Raiders to six-straight points, a Sandy kill tied things at 24 and two attacking errors allowed R-N to tie things, 1-1.
 
Rutgers-Newark ripped off 7-of-10 to start the third, with the nights answering to take a 12-11 margin. Kills from Sandy and junior middle Dom Gutowski propelled R-N to a 23-21 edge, but the Knights came back late, ending the set on a 4-0 run to take a 2-1 edge.
 
The Raiders led 7-4 early behind kills from veteran Ricky Crumlish and Sandy, but Southern Virginia came back to tie the set at 13 and used an 8-2 rally to create separation and clinch the win.
 
Rutgers-Newark 3, Lehman 0 (25-10, 25-19, 25-20)
The Scarlet Raiders left little doubt from the opening serve, rolling to their first win of the season by sweeping the Lightning.
 
Behind the service game of Pieper, the Scarlet Raiders tallied the first five points of the match, and a winner from Frank gave Rutgers-Newark a 10-1 edge. A Crumlish hammer made the score 14-4, and from that point Newark cruised to the 1-0 lead, pocketing the final five points on the serve of Pieper.
 
Lehman improved its play to start the second as the teams split the first 20 points, but a big-time 9-3 run for Newark swung the set in its favor, giving the guests a 19-13 edge. Kills from Pieper accounted for points 24 and 25 and set up Rutgers for the sweep.
 
Two Sorrell aces in a 7-1 run to start the third gave the Scarlet Raiders the upper hand and Lehman could get no closer than three points the rest of the set. Sorrell put down a kill to put the Raiders on the brink, and a Lehman error sealed it.
 
Rutgers-Newark pocketed 36 kills and 51 points in the win, hitting an early-season-best .306 and holding the Lightning to a .081 hitting percentage. R-N dished out 32 assists and tallied a season-high 12 aces, pocketing 36 digs and three total blocks. Lehman picked up 24 kills, 22 assists, three blocks and eight aces.
 
Pieper had 14 kills and a .462 hitting percentage to finish with an incredible 34 total winners on the night. He added four aces and six digs against LC.
 
Sandy had seven kills and two digs, and Frank notched four kills, two assists, two aces and nine digs. Connors lifted six digs, and freshman Dev Deokie chipped in with a career-high three kills, a career-high 19 assists and four digs.
 
Opening serve Thursday night is slated for 7 p.m. in The Golden Dome and fans unable to make the match can follow live via links at www.rutgersnewarkathletics.com.