BROOKLYN, N.Y. | For the first time in program history, the New Jersey City University (NJCU) men's volleyball team has gone undefeated in conference play following the 3-0 (25-7, 25-5, 25-9) sweep of Medgar Evers.
NJCU (18-7, 8-0) hit a red-hot .447 as a team while Mikey Harte (New York, N.Y./St. John's Preparatory) led the team with a career-high 13 kills. Crossing the century mark for the first time in his career was Mike McGehee (Avondale, Ariz./Agua Fria), who tallied three kills tonight. Faraz Bhatti (Union, N.J./Union) dished out a career-high 40 kills and 9 service aces, while Alaittim De Leon (Santiago, Dominic Republic/Harrison) set a new career-high with 13 kills. Jonathan Mundaray (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) paced the team with 11 digs.
Medgar Evers (0-16, 0-7) was held to -.088 as a team. Ahmed Toure tied for the team lead with three kills while adding four digs.
The Gothic Knights surged out to an 8-0 lead highlighted by a pair of aces from Bhatti. The Cougars secured their first point of the set thanks to an error by the Gothic Knights. McGehee later went back-to-back to ignite a 5-0 run for NJCU that pushed their lead out to 18-3. Nasir Paige (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson) set the tone down the stretch and led a 6-2 run capped by a Bhatti ace.
NJCU used a 10-0 run to open the second set before following that up with another 10-0 run to hold a late 20-1 lead. The Cougars reversed the script and used a 4-1 run to chip away at the lead, however, the Gothic Knights closed out the set with a pair of kills.
Medgar Evers knotted the third set at three before NJCU responded with a 7-1 run to propel them into the lead, where they would remain for the rest of the set.
FROM HEAD COACH CARLO EDRA:
"Regular season champions and going undefeated in the conference sounds nice, but none of that will matter unless we finish the job and win the conference tournament. The only thing all of us should be focused on is to figure out a way to beat our conference opponents in April."
Up Next:
The Gothic Knights return to action on Saturday, March 28, when they take on #9 Southern Virginia and #16 Rutgers-Newark in Newark, NJ.
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