UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – NJIT had to hold off a furious comeback attempt by Charleston, but the Highlanders pulled out the win in the opening match of the EIVA Championship Tournament.
NJIT prevailed 25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 15-11 over the Golden Eagles at Penn State’s Rec Hall on April 19, 2023.
The sixth-seeded Highlanders (9-16, 2-8) advance to the semifinals to meet No. 2 seed and defending EIVA tournament champion Princeton at 4:30 p.m. April 20.
Sophomore outside hitter Alessandro Negri carried a heavy load with 25 kills and .370 hitting on 54 swings – more than twice the number of attempts of anyone else on the team – to lead NJIT.
The Highlanders worked with a bit of an unusual offense for Division I men’s volleyball, employing a 6-2 offense with setters Roque Nido and Griffin Fieseler, as the team continued to adapt to a fluctuating roster caused by numerous injuries.
Match notes

• Charleston was making its first postseason appearance in program history, capping its best record at 22-7, 5-5.
• The meeting of the Highlanders and Tigers is a rematch from each team’s final match of the regular season, and of the 2022 EIVA championship. Both were won by Princeton.
• The Golden Eagles were plagued by errors over the first two-plus sets. After the second, 50 percent of NJIT’s points came off Charleston hitting and service errors. In the third and fourth sets, Charleston totaled only 15 errors, with six in the fourth.

Match stats
NJIT: 60 kills, .300 hitting, five aces, 41 digs, 10.5 blocks.
Charleston: 58 kills, .254 hitting, one ace, 42 digs, 10 blocks.
Martin de Chavarria (NJIT) nine kills, four blocks
Jens Feldthus (NJIT) eight kills, three aces, 14 digs
Fieseler (NJIT) 32 assists
Nido (NJIT) 22 assists, four blocks
Carson Williams (NJIT) five blocks
Lachlan Bray (UC) 14 kills
Luuk Hoge Bavel (UC) 13 kills, six blocks
Veit Bils (UC) 12 kills, .474 hitting
Diego Villafane (UC) 46 assists, 12 digs
Ismael Sneed (UC) four blocks
Post-match comments
NJIT coach Danny Goncalves
“We were able to serve tough toward the end of the (fifth) set, and I think it made it more difficult for them. They got a couple hitting errors because we got them off the net. They’re trying to force some things offensively. Just some good pressure by us on the serving front.”
Using a 6-2 offense
“Last weekend (at Princeton) was our first time going for it. We toyed just with Roque playing opposite because Julian (Meisner) has been out, trying to find the right fit of guys on the court that’s going to help us put together the best product.”
Alessandro Negri
“We had a really tough season, and I think we came here with the idea of doing better and doing what we think we could do all season, so I think we’re pretty focused with every ball that we get, every chance that we get.”
On a rematch with Princeton
“We play them a lot, actually. The offseason, in-season, last year (in the finals), this year, all the time. We all know each other.”
Jens Feldthus on facing Princeton
“We want to get them back for last year’s final – our turn.”
Charleston coach Luke Reynolds
“At the end of the day, this is coaching, this is volleyball, you’ve just got to find a way to win and they found a way. We kind of stumbled at the last little hurdle there.”
“For sure there was going to be nerves. For a lot of these guys, this whole season has been a lot of firsts. I think there was definitely some nerves. Once we kind of got past (our) first set win, then there was a bit of a monkey-off-the-back kind of feel. If that at come earlier, who knows?”
“It’s definitely a turning point for the program. In the past it’s kind of, UC was kind of the whipping boy of the EIVA, we could say, that if we were showing up and competing it’s a good thing. But this year it wasn’t about competing, it was about going out and beat teams. There’s a lot of guys in the locker room that will stay, there are a lot of guys that will be leaving and graduating too, so it’s just going to put us in a better situation come playoffs next year.”