New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score BOX SCORE
GAME PROGRAM/NOTES

JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Freshman outside hitter BESMIR ARSLANI (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) slammed a match and career-high 22 kills, but Kean University used its size advantage to floor 17 total blocks as the Cougars edged NJCU in an epic Skyline Conference men's volleyball match, 3-2 (25-16, 22-25, 24-26, 25-23, 15-13). The match was the early contest of a Skyline Quad match hosted by NJCU on 'Coach Charlie Brown Court' at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.
 
Trailing 22-19 in the fourth set, Kean rallied, scoring six of the final seven points to force a decisive fifth game. Then in a final game marked by seven ties and three lead changes, junior outside hitter Steve Vahalla (Bloomfield, NJ/Bloomfield) snapped a 13-13 deadlock by notching back-to-back kills to lift Kean to the two-point five-set decision.
 
Kean (1-1, 1-0 Skyline) won its first match of the season and was a winner in its first-ever Skyline contest. NJCU (2-1, 1-1 Skyline), suffered its first loss of the season. Kean leads the all-time series, 3-0, with two matches decides by 3-2 outcomes.
 
Arslani, who landed 14 kills in each of his first two career matches, planted 22 kills in 49 attempts (11 errors) for a .224 percentage, while defending 10 digs and blocking two balls for his first career double-double. He had nearly half of NJCU's 49 total winners.
 
The 17.0 total blocks matches the second most in Kean's brief two-year history and five players collected at least three rejections.
 
Vahalla hit .833 in the final set with five kills on six swings, and finished the afternoon hitting .333 with a team-high 18 kills (18-5-39), nine digs and six blocks. Freshman middle hitter Kyle Farley (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) set a Kean record with 12 blocks in the match (10 assisted, two solo) and added six kills.
 
Also for the Cougars, senior opposite Christian Portera (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick) landed 13 kills (13-8-32, .156) and had four assisted blocks and senior outside hitter Sam Haimann (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central) added 10 kills and hit .261 (10-4-23).
 
Freshman setter Alex Barnhard (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) had 27 assists and three blocks in the first three sets before being replaced by freshman setter Ron Dunn (Collingswood, NJ/Collingswood), who had 16 assists in two games. Sophomore libero Tom Kemmerle (Cinnaminson, NJ/Cinnaminson) tallied 11 Kean digs and freshman middle hitter Ed Jedziniak (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) had four blocks and six kills.
 
NJCU junior setter JUSTIN BEAUMONT (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) delivered 39 assists, seven kills (7-2-18, .278), seven digs and three blocks. Rookie middle hitter PATRYK RUSZNICA (Cieszyn, Poland/Bayonne) hit .130 with eight kills (8-5-23) and four blocks, including two solo putdowns.
 
Senior outside hitter KENNY LISK (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) finished with seven kills. Freshman opposite ANGEL MARTINEZ (Pleasantville, NJ/Pleasantville) had 11 digs, five assists, four kills and two aces and junior libero VIN GENOVA (South Plainfield, NJ/South Plainfield) defended 11 digs. Sophomore middle blocker NATHAN JOUBERT (Union City, NJ/Union City) had three blocks
 
Kean easily won the first set, never trailing while posting a .333 attack percentage (10-3-21) and five blocks. NJCU evened the match while leading for most of the second set. NJCU hit .300 in the period (10-4-20) behind an evenly spread offensive outburst and limited Kean to a .074 attack rate (11-9-27). The Knights opened up three four-point leads in the final minutes, including 24-20 and withstood a comeback attempt from the visitors when Martinez tooled the block on set point for the 25-22 edge.
 
In a fun third set to watch there were nine ties and five lead changes. Arslani did much of the damage in the period with nine of NJCU's 13 kills and the rookie two-time All-Stater hit .667 with nine kills (9-1-12), leading the hosts' .321 attack rate in the game (13-4-28). Kean had 15 kills in the set, hitting .194. The Cougars led 21-18 before an Arslani slam and two Kean attack errors tied it. Kean twice regained a one-point lead, but each time Arslani responded with his right arm, tying the set at 23-23 and 24-24 with a pair of kills. After an attack error by Haimann gave NJCU a one-point lead, Arslani finished off the period with a kill as NJCU prevailed, 26-24 for a 2-1 lead.
 
In the fourth set there were nine ties and seven lead changes as Kean had a 13-10 margin in kills and six blocks. Trailing 22-19 after back-to-back attack errors, Kean called timeout and responded with a kill by Vahalla, followed by three straight blocks—two combo rejections by Vahalla and Farley sandwiched around a solo block by Farley. Vahalla made an attack error to tie it at 23-23, but made up for it with a kill that gave the Cougars a 24-23 lead. An NJCU attack error sent the match to the fifth set.
 
Each team had eight kills in the final game with Kean hitting .385 and the Knights .294. Kean claimed a 12-9 lead but NJCU didn't go away. After a Kean service error, Arslani and Rusznica combined for a block to tie it at 12-12. Dunn had a solo block for Kean before Rusznica floored a shot for a 13-13 deadlock. Vahalla put the match away with the two final kills for a 15-13 decision.