LANGHORNE, Pa. (March 28, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's volleyball team picked up a 3-1 Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) road win at Cairn University Tuesday night to improve to 5-5 in league play and 11-14 overall.
 
Since a 3-11 start, Rutgers-Newark has been playing better and better, winning 8-of-11 to get back to .500 in league play. The Scarlet Raiders have four more conference matches left and will take on a pair of nationally-ranked CVC foes in Marymount University and Eastern Mennonite University Friday and Saturday in Newark inside The Golden Dome.
 
The set scores were 25-21, 25-21, 21-25 and 25-14. Cairn falls to 3-23 overall and 0-9 in the CVC.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 21
Cairn took the upper hand with 4-of-6 to start, and it was able to open a 14-11 edge after 25 points. Down 18-15 moments later, Rutgers-Newark rallied, tying the set at 18-all following a kill from sophomore Brendon Frank. A service ace from junior Ricky Crumlish handed the Scarlet Raiders the lead, and after the Highlanders tied things at 18, Rutgers-Newark closed the set with 7-of-10 to take a 1-0 advantage. Freshman Malik Patel delivered the clincher, and junior Dom Gutowski gave the Scarlet Raiders set point at 24-20.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 21
It was R-N that took the early lead in the second set, racing out to a 5-1 lead. Junior Justin Sandy put down a winner to up the Newark advantage to five at 11-6, but Cairn came back, opening a 14-13 edge of its own.
 
The two sides would go point-for-point throughout the middle stages of the set, and just like the first, Rutgers-Newark closed strong to take a 2-0 lead. A Patel-Gutowski block broke a 19-all stalemate, and two-straight Cairn errors helped close it out.
 
Cairn 25, Rutgers-Newark 21
Cairn scored 4-of-6 to start the third, and after a Crumlish ace gave Rutgers-Newark a 6-4 edge after 10 points, the two teams traded tallies.
 
Crumlish's second ace of the set tied things at 15 apiece, but the Highlanders ran off six of the next nine markers to open a 21-18 margin, and eventually closed out the set-three win.
 
Rutgers-Newark 25, Cairn 14
After dropping the third set, Rutgers-Newark left little doubt in the fourth, ripping off 11-of-15 points out of the gate behind multiple kills from junior Jalen Sorrell, Crumlish and Sandy.
 
Later, Frank and Sorrell combined on a block to make the score 16-8, with a denial from Patel and Gutowski making it 20-12 in favor of the Scarlet Raiders. Sorrell gave Rutgers-Newark match point at 24-15, and Sandy clinched it on the next serve with a kill.
 
Rutgers-Newark was incredibly balanced offensively, getting eight-plus kills from four different players. Crumlish had 16 kills and 10 digs for a double-double, adding four aces, while Sandy had 10 kills and nine digs. Patel tallied nine winners and seven digs, with Sorrell scoring eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage to go with five blocks. Frank double-doubled as well for Rutgers-Newark totaling 42 assists, 10 digs and three blocks, and Gutowski notched four kills and three blocks.
 
Rutgers-Newark had 61 points in the match on 48 kills (.228), five aces and eight blocks. The Raiders totaled 45 assists and 46 digs. Cairn finished with 48 points on 44 kills (.105) and four blocks.

Hot! In two of the team's last three matches, Ricky Crumlish has tallied 16-plus kills.
Double Double-Doubles! Ricky Crumlish and Brendon Frank each secured double-doubles in Tuesday night's win.