NEWARK, N.J. (February 11, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team picked up its first Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) win of the season Saturday afternoon in The Golden Dome, topping visiting Thiel College, 3-1.
 
Rutgers-Newark improves to 1-1 in the conference and 2-7 overall, while Thiel drops to 1-1 in the CVC and 3-4 overall. The Scarlet Raiders will look to make it two-straight league triumphs Tuesday night when they host Cairn University. Opening serve is slated for 7 p.m.
 
Saturday's set scores were 25-18, 20-25, 27-25 and 25-22, and Newark was paced by a double-double from junior outside Corey Pieper.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Thiel 18
The Scarlet Raiders came out of the gate playing well, getting kills from three different players and an ace from sophomore Arnan Romua to build a 7-3 lead. Thiel came back to tie the set at 8-all, but Newark pulled back in front, getting back-to-back hammers from junior middle Jalen Sorrell and junior outside Justin Sandy to make the score 16-12 R-N.
 
A kill from sophomore setter-opposite Brendon Frank upped the lead to five (19-14), and a Tomcat error made it 20-14 Raiders and forced a Thiel timeout.
 
Thiel trimmed the lead to two with four-straight out of the TO, but a kill from Pieper halted the momentum and sparked the Raiders on a set-closing 5-0 run to take a 1-0 lead.
 
Thiel 25, Rutgers-Newark 20
Led by two early kills from Pieper, the Scarlet Raiders jumped in front 4-1, and a hammer from Sorrell made it 7-3 R-N after 10 points. The Tomcats pulled in front at 10-7 with seven-straight points, extending the margin to seven (17-10) following a kill from senior Regan Hess.
 
Two aces from junior middle Dom Gutowski as part of a 3-0 spurt pulled R-N within four, but Thiel held off the Raiders to tie the match.
 
Rutgers-Newark 27, Thiel 25
The two sides split the first 20 points in the third (10-10), with a 5-2 run for Thiel giving the guests a 15-12 edge.
 
Back-to-back kills from senior Cody Patterson allowed the Tomcats to open a five-point lead (18-13), and just when the Scarlet Raiders looked dead in the water, they battled back to tie, fighting off two set points in the process and getting one of their own thanks to a winner from freshman outside Malik Patel.
 
Thiel fought off the R-N set point at first, but the Scarlet Raiders got the job done, using a clutch ace from Sorrell for the big 2-1 match lead.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Thiel 22
In the fourth, Rutgers-Newark held a slim 13-12 margin after 25 points, using a Patel kill and Thiel error to open three-point edge at 18-15.
 
An ace from Frank and another Tomcat error made the score 21-16 Scarlet Raiders, and a big-time solo block from junior Ricky Crumlish brought up match point at 24-18.
 
Thiel was able to cut into the Newark lead, but Frank set Pieper for the clincher and Rutgers-Newark walked away with its first league win of the season.
 
Pieper totaled 11 kills (.375), 12 digs, one ace and one block, while Patel put down a career-high nine winners in three sets and hit .500. Sorrell had seven kills, an ace and a block, while Gutowski tallied six winners (.455), five blocks and two aces. Crumlish picked up six kills and four blocks, and Frank had 19 assists, five kills, seven digs and an ace. Freshman libero Jake Connors lifted 11 digs, and sophomore setter Arnan Romua dished out a team-high 22 assists.
 
Newark hit .269 in the match, posting 62 points, 47 kills, seven aces, eight blocks, 44 assists and 39 digs, while Thiel hit .185 with 63 points, 52 kills, five aces, 47 assists and 48 digs.
 
Freshman Mitchell Patterson, senior Nate Roche and Corey Patterson all put down double-digit kills to lead the guests.