Rutgers University-Newark and Juniata College may not have given fans a clear answer as to the better team but they did provide exciting volleyball in the first showdown between two ranked Continental Volleyball Conference teams this year. #11 ranked Juniata hosted #5 Rutgers-Newark in a doubleheader with the visitors taking the opening match 3-2 and the host school answering back with a five-set win in the second match.
Match #1
The Scarlet Raiders won the opening match with a come-from-behind victory; 25-15, 24-26, 26-28, 25-23, and 15-13. Andrew Zaleck led the team with a 20-kill performance while Arvind Kumar added 10 kills in the match. Robert Long and Daniel Quay each secured 11 kills and hit .450 and .444, respectively. Justin Tuohy recorded a career-high 58 assists, besting his earlier career-high of 52 he set against NJCU.
Juniata was led by Will Phelan's 12 kills and his .259 hit percentage. Reese Ganter paced the Eagles with 45 assists while Daniel Voronov led his team with 10 digs.
The Scarlet Raiders opened up their first Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) match with an impressive 25-15 win over the 11th-ranked Juniata College Eagles. Rutgers-Newark jumped out to a 3-1 lead before the Eagles knotted it up at 5-5. After an attacking error by Zaleck to make the score 13-10, the Scarlet Raiders woke up and aided by attacking errors by Juniata, extended their lead to 19-12. Zaleck, set up by Tuohy, put away the first set by securing two of the final three points for the win.
Rutgers-Newark opened the second set slower than they did the first and trailed 6-3 before rallying to take a 14-12 lead. Both teams traded points for the remainder of the set until it looked as though the Scarlet Raiders were going to take a 2-0 lead over Juniata. Holding a 24-22 lead, the Scarlet Raiders' offense went silent as the Eagles scored four straight points to level the match at one.
On their home court, the Eagles would not see themselves fall behind 2-1 as they once again made it a set down the stretch. Down 24-23, Daniel Quay evened the score at 24 before the Eagles took the lead. Zaleck once again secured a kill for his team, however, the Scarlet Raiders were outdone as they fell behind 2-1 on the road.
With three sets already recorded in the opening match, both teams knew how the other would attack which made for an extremely competitive fourth set. Neither team was able to gain a foothold until the very end and when that team saw their opportunity, they seized it. After an attacking error gave the Scarlet Raiders a 24-21 lead they all but had the set wrapped up until the Eagles gained some momentum and scored two straight points. Rutgers-Newark was not to be outdone and held on to even the match at two.
In the fifth and final set, the Scarlet Raiders had to battle from an 11-7 deficit led by a pair of kills from Kumar. Zaleck tied the set at 13 before a pair of errors by Juniata gave the match to the Scarlet Raiders.
Match #2
Juniata responded by taking the second match of the day 24-26, 25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 15-13. The first set was one to forget for the Eagles as they fell behind early, hit -.200 for the set, and wound up dropping the opener 15-25.
Set two opened with a kill from Luke Hoffman and an attack error by the Scarlet Raiders. It was much tighter throughout, with JC trailed 12-14 before kills from Will Phelan and Robert Bowling mixed with a Rutgers-Newark attack error made it 15-14. The teams went back and forth, with the Eagles going up 21-20 before the Scarlet Raiders surged ahead via a 3-1 spurt to lead 24-22 and reach set point. A Kevin Duffy kill and another Scarlet Raider attack error tied things at 24. A Grant Crytzer float serve gave JC set point, and a block by Tyler Goldsborough and Hoffman ended the set 26-24.
Set three saw Juniata lead most of the way. With the score at 6-4, Duffy and Reese Ganter combined for a block, Phelan served back-to-back aces and forced a Rutgers-Newark timeout, but a slick Ganter dump pushed the lead to 10-4. The Scarlet Raiders wouldn't go away and pulled even at 20-20 after a 4-0 run. With the score at 22-23, Phelan and Duffy's kills pushed JC to set point, but the Scarlet Raiders managed to tie the score. Kills from Duffy twice got JC to set point, but each time the visitors had an answer. With the score at 26-26, the Scarlet Raiders committed an error, and Bowling smash down the right side ended the set-in favor of JC 28-26.
Set four was more of the same as neither team led by more than three at any point. The Scarlet Raiders got the three-point advantage late, with a solo block putting them at set point, 21-24. Juniata called timeout. Bowling tooled the block to get a point back for JC, and a Rutgers-Newark attack error brought them within one, but an Eagle service error made it 23-25 and meant a fifth set.
The deciding set followed the same script as the previous three, with neither team giving an inch. With the score at 9-7, kills from Goldsborough and Phelan made it 11-7 as JC was in a good position, but three of the next four points went the way of the visitors to make it 12-10. Rutgers-Newark committed a service error to make it 13-10, but Juniata did not score again as the Scarlet Raiders closed the match on a 5-0 run to win the match, 13-15.