 |
 Charles Bell had a .545 hitting percentage |
March 22, 2008
STOCKTON, CA - Pacific swept a non-conference interregional men's volleyball match from visiting NJIT, 3-0, Saturday night to complete a successful weekend series for the host Tigers.
Pacific won Saturday's match with relative ease, taking the Highlanders by scores of 30-24, 30-25 and then 30-19 after topping the Highlanders by a 3-1 count on Friday night.
Some individual NJIT players posted high attack percentages, but the team attack percentage was just .157 and only two players had double-figure kills totals. Pacific's team attack percentage was .400.
The high percentage hitters in the match for the Highlanders did not have enough kills to tip the balance toward NJIT. Charles Bell had a .545 attack percentage (7 kills, 1 error, 11 attempts) and Greg Wagner had a .400 attack percentage (7 kills, 1 error, 15 attempts).
Leonardo Paludo led NJIT in kills with 12, while Amobi Armstrong finished with 11 kills. Rodrigo Correa set 29 assists, while Paludo picked up two points for the Highlanders on service aces. Senior libero Chris Siddayao led NJIT's floor defense with 10 digs, while Bell had four blocks (2 solo, 2 assists) at the net.
Pacific, which had a 14.5-to-8 team blocking advantage in Friday's 3-1 win over NJIT, dominated at the net again on Saturday, knocking down 11.5 attacks to five by the Highlanders blockers. Simon Chen-Byerley of the Tigers was the match block leader with five, all assisted.
Jason Borchin's match-high 13 kills led the Pacific attack followed by Pekka Seppanen (12) and Chen-Byerley (11). Kris Staks collected 44 assists, while Borchin served two aces. Seppanen tied NJIT's Siddayao for match digs honors, with 10.
Game one was close until the Tigers took control late. Just past the midpoint, Pacific led, 21-17, which was its biggest bulge to that point. However, two Seppanen kills and two NJIT attack errors coming out of a timeout allowed Pacific to build a 27-21 lead and the Tigers took game point on a block by Chen-Byerley and Ted Slater.
The Highlanders got out to a quick 5-2 lead in game two and they later led, 12-10, but a kill and block by Seppanen and a kill by Hendershot gave the Tigers a 13-12 lead and Pacific led for good.
The first third of game three was close, as Pacific led 10-9 after the first 19 points. But the Tigers doubled up the Highlanders the rest of the way, 20-10, for the comfortable 30-19 win that clinched the match and the sweep of the two-match weekend series. The Tigers had a perfect (20-20) sideout percentage in game three.
The Highlanders, who play in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, will close their schedule in the East after going out of the region for four tough matches during Spring Break.
Last weekend they visited Lewis and Loyola-Chicago of the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. And Saturday night's match wrapped up the two-match series at Pacific of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the western circuit that has produced 21 of the 22 final number one teams since the national poll began in 1986.
NJIT has four regular season matches remaining, starting with the final non-conference contest of the season on Wednesday, when the Highlanders host SUNY-New Paltz at 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
The final three matches are pivotal EIVA Tait Division matchups that will help determine seeding for the upcoming EIVA postseason playoffs that are slated to begin on April 14.
