NEW YORK, NY | The sixth-ranked Scarlet Raiders men's volleyball program remained perfect this evening after using four sets to defeat Hunter College, 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-21, 27-25).
No. 6 Rutgers University-Newark (11-0) held off the Hawks of Hunter College behind
Andrew Zaleck's career-high 21 kills at the Hunter Sportsplex. Fellow freshman,
Justin Tuohy, tied his career-high with 50 assists tonight to help lead the Scarlet Raiders past the Hawks.
Daniel Quay and
Arvind Kumar picked up 11 and 10 kills, respectively while
Jake Connors added 12 digs.
Hunter College (9-5) stuck around with the Scarlet Raiders and pushed them to their limit as Qendrim Shala paced his team with 13 kills while hitting .235. Alec Helford picked up 35 assists while Chris Scandole led the team with 15 digs.
Hunter opened the first set with a purpose as they set back the Scarlet Raiders, 4-0. Rutgers University-Newark settled into the set and went on a 4-0 run of their own to knot the set up which caused Hunter to call a timeout to try to cool off the surging Scarlet Raiders. A pair of errors bookended by kills from
Nicholas Arce-Cox and
Robert Long pushed the Scarlet Raiders out in front. The Hawks remained close, however, Rutgers-Newark made sure to hold onto the lead as they took a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Hawks answered with a win in the second set, a set in which they led wire-to-wire. Down 23-20 the Scarlet Raiders received kills from Long and Zaleck to tie the set up at 23 which was also aided by an error from the Hawks. The Scarlet Raiders looked as if they were on their way to a 2-0 lead in the match but Hunter closed out the set behind a pair of kills from Shala to even it up at one.
In the third set, the Scarlet Raiders used a 7-2 run in the middle of the set to jump into the lead to take the third set. Much like the Scarlet Raiders did the set prior, Hunter made a late push but had the door slammed shut as Zaleck and Long registered kills.
The closest set of the night came in the fourth and final game as it took 27 points to claim the win. For the first half of the set, the teams couldn't string points together to take a lead as they continually answered each other. Hunter snuck out to a 21-18 lead which caused Head Coach
Jack Wilson to call a timeout to make some adjustments for his team. Out of the timeout, the Scarlet Raiders went on a 5-2 run which leveled the set at 23. An attacking error by the Scarlet Raiders put Hunter out in front but the men scored two straight points which set them up for match point. Hunter once again tied it up then followed it up with a service error which allowed
Arvind Kumar to collect a kill to end the match.
The Scarlet Raiders return to action on Tuesday, February 25, where they will travel across the bridge to take on New Jersey City University at 7:00 pm.
