New Jersey City University Athletics

BOX SCORE
GAME PROGRAM/NOTES

JERSEY CITY, NJ…Senior outside hitter KEVIN RODGERS (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) became the fifth player in New Jersey City University history to record 1,000 career kills, but #12 ranked Baruch College hit .467 overall as a team and defeated the Gothic Knights, 3-0 (30-16, 30-28, 30-28) in a non-divisional men's volleyball match on Tuesday night on 'Charlie Brown Court' at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.

Baruch, ranked 12^th nationally in Division III by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, posted its fourth consecutive win—all by sweeps—to improve to 7-2. NJCU, playing the second of a five-match homestand to begin the season, falls to 1-1. Baruch defeats NJCU for the second straight year, but the Knights still own a 15-12 margin all-time in the series.

Rodgers, who entered this final season of collegiate volleyball with 982 kills, and the match with 995, now has 1,001 in just over three seasons. He joins Satsay Thongvichith (1995-98), 1,862 kills; Robert Griffiths (2004-07), 1,234 kills; Christopher Feliciano (1999-00, 02-03), 1,082 kills; and Jason Payman (1995-97), 1,075 kills, on the all-time 1,000-kill club in the 20-year history of the program.

But Baruch took advantage of its considerable height difference in smacking 52 kills against only nine errors on 92 attempts for a team .467 attack rate.

Freshman 6-foot-4 middle blocker Matt McKee (Bay Shore, NY/West Islip) hit .786 with 11 kills and no errors on 14 attempts, adding two blocks. Sophomore 6-foot-6 middle blocker finished with a match-high 12 kills (12-2-16) and hit .625 while fellow Hunter College transfer and sophomore outside hitter Pablo Oliveira (Uberlandia, Brazil/Newcomers) finished with 11 kills (11-2-23), hit .391, and added three aces.

Leading the way was junior setter Radu Wyrwas (Bialystok, Poland/Grover Cleveland), who delivered 42 assists on 80 chances for a .525 setting percentage.

The Bearcats also received seven kills (7-1-13), a .462 attack rate, and two aces from freshman outside hitter Gabriel Rivera (Central Islip, NJ/Central Islip) and seven kills (7-2-15, .333) and two blocks from senior opposite Danial Levent (Forest Hills, NY/American Studies).

Sophomore outside hitter MARLEY PENA-GUZMAN (Atlanta, GA/Central Gwinnett (GA)), in his first match of the year, paced NJCU with seven kills and two aces while Rodgers finished with six kills. 

Freshman middle blocker AUSTIN BRYANT (Virginia Beach, VA/Kempsville) added five kills (5-2-133), two aces, two blocks, and hit .231. Freshman middle blocker DANNY KOCHANSKI (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) did not make an attack error on nine chances, finishing with four kills and a .444 percentage. Sophomore setter JUSTIN BEAUMONT (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) delivered 25 assists and six digs.

Baruch, who had played seven more matches than NJCU already this season, appeared in midseason form from the beginning, hitting .565 in the opening game (14-1-23), winning 30-16.

Baruch smashed 20 kills in the second set, hitting .485, and that proved important as NJCU led early, 9-5 and 10-6 before the Bearcats unleashed a 7-0 run behind the serving of Oliveira, to gain a 13-10 cushion. NJCU did tie it twice, 15-15, and again at 22-22, after a kill fell for Kochanski, and the remainder of the frame was tight. Trailing 27-25, a block by Bryant and senior opposite THIAGO SIQUEIRA (Newark, NJ/Science), followed by a Bryant ace, gave NJCU a 28-27 edge, before back-to-back Knight attack errors put the Bearcats back in front and Oliveira slammed a kill to win 30-28.

Baruch had 18 kills in the final game, but again needed to hold on late as NJCU nearly rallied from a six-point deficit. Down 18-12, NJCU pulled within one late, 28-27, on a Rodgers winner. Kowalski had a kill for a 29-27 lead, but committed a service error, cutting it to 29-28, before Oliveira had a solo block on match point, for a 30-28 decision.

NJCU will be home again on Thursday, January 29 at 7 p.m. when it hosts Brooklyn College. Baruch faces #14 Philadelphia Biblical University the same night at 7:30 p.m.