April 10, 2007

NEWARK, NJ - Monday's men's volleyball win for New Jersey Institute of Technology not only clinched a championship for the Highlanders, it guaranteed them a step up in competition for 2008.

Monday's 3-0 win at New Haven clinched the regular season championship of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Hay Division for the Highlanders, who finished divisional play with a 9-1 record. The only loss came to second-place Springfield, which wound up with an 8-2 record, including losses to NJIT in a rematch and also to New York University.

As 2007 Hay Division champion, NJIT will play the 2008 season as a member of the EIVA's Tait Division.

NJIT is a longtime member of the EIVA, which is the sport's top circuit in the East, with its postseason tournament champion guaranteed a spot in the four-team NCAA national championship tournament.

The EIVA has two divisions, which are aligned according to overall power rating. The higher-rated division is the Tait Division and the other division is the Hay Division, where the Highlanders have competed in recent years.

Each year, to account for changes in individual teams' relative strength, the EIVA employs a system of promotion and relegation similar to that used in European professional soccer.

Under the EIVA system, the Hay Division champion moves up to the Tait Division for the following season and the last-place finisher in the Tait Division is relegated to the Hay Division.

As the first-place finisher in the Hay Division for 2007, the Highlanders will move up to the Tait. In a touch of irony, they will switch places with Rutgers-Newark, which was the last-place finisher in the Tait Division this season.

As a result of the promotion, the men's volleyball schedule will undergo a dramatic change. Next year, NJIT will play two matches apiece against Penn State (perennially the dominant team in the EIVA), Princeton, George Mason, St. Francis of Pennsylvania, Juniata and East Stroudsburg (the 2006 Hay Division champion).

Gone as divisional foes for 2008 are: Springfield, Harvard, NYU, New Haven and Sacred Heart, who will be joined by Rutgers-Newark in the Hay Division.

NJIT last played in the Tait Division in 2002 and its best Tait Division finish was in 1998, when the Highlanders tied for first place with a 5-1 divisional record.