Rutgers-Newark Captures 2024 ECAC Men's Volleyball Crown
NEWARK, N.J. - Second-seeded Rutgers University-Newark avenged a regular-season loss and defended its home court Saturday night to win the Eastern College Athletic Conference Men's Volleyball Tournament, knocking off top-seeded New Jersey City University, 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 32-30) at The Golden Dome on the Rutgers-Newark campus.
The ECAC title is the first for Rutgers-Newark (16-12) and reversed a 3-1 loss at the hands on NJCU when the two teams met on February 21 at The Golden Dome. Along with the ECAC title, the Scarlet Raiders also won their fourth straight New Jersey Athletic Conference regular-season title this season as well.
Rutgers-Newark looked like it was on its way to its second 3-0 sweep of the day after it took the first two sets, 25-23 and 25-22, but the Gothic Knights (22-11) - who were looking to win their second straight ECAC title - had other plans. NJCU forced a fourth set with a 26-24 win in Set 3, setting the stage for one of the best deciding sets in ECAC Tournament history.
In a set that had an amazing 17 ties in all, including ties at every number from 21 to 30, the Gothic Knights had set point six different times, but the Scarlet Raiders fought all of them off. With the score 30-29 NJCU, Rutgers-Newark got three straight kills from Lucas Blanco to erase the one-point deficit and give the Scarlet Raiders a hard-fought Set 4 win, 32-30, and the ECAC title.
Blanco had a double-double with a team-high 18 kills, 13 digs and three service aces. Sean Spring had 11 kills, six digs and two service aces, Aleks Kolodziej - the Continental Volleyball Conference Rookie of the Year - had 10 kills, six digs and four block assists, Martin Chromulak chipped in five kills and five service aces, setter Derek Au - a second-team All-CVC pick - dished out 43 assists and added three digs, three kills and two service aces, and Evan Jazmin had 10 digs for the Scarlet Raiders, who had 53 kills total and 12 service aces in the victory.
NJCU - which went 17-1 in the Skyline Conference in the regular season before losing at St. Joseph's University-Long Island in the conference tournament finals - only had 36 kills and hit .142 for the match, but the Gothic Knights also had six solo blocks and 13 block assists in the loss. The Gothic Knights had four different players finish with eight kills apiece, with Marcus Pardasie - the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year - netting eight kills and five digs, Brandon Da Silva - a first-team all-conference pick - ending up with eight kills, five block assists, three solo blocks and two digs, James Bajor - another first-team All-Skyline choice - adding eight kills and seven digs, and Amaru Perales chipping in eight kills and two digs. Alex Casais had 16 assists, four digs and two kills and Erik Narvaez tossed in 12 assists and five digs of his own for the Gothic Knights.