UNION, N.J. (2/15/14) – The Kean University men's volleyball team did not drop a set on its way to a sweep of its conference rivals from Purchase College and the Sage Colleges at Harwood Arena on Saturday. The Cougars are now 7-5 on the year and a perfect 3-0 in the conference.

In a rematch of last year's Skyline Championship match, the Cougars jumped out to an 8-2 lead over Sage in the first set. The Gators were able to reasserted themselves, got within two points at 11-9 and kept close the rest of the way. Ed Jedziniak and Tommy Rosario had back-to-back blocks to keep Kean ahead in the midgame.

Ultimately, though, the Cougars led wire-to-wire in the first and Damian Bargielski ended the set with a pinpoint kill in the corner at 25-22.

Down 6-3 in the second, Kean battled back to tie it at 10. Bargielski, Jedziniak and Mike Scheuermann each had kills in the next few points to give the Cougars some breathing room. An ace by Josh Haimann increased the advantage even further.

Scheuermann had a big block for Kean's 24th point and Bargielski's solo block clinched the second set 25-21. The Cougars held Sage to a -.154 hitting percentage in set two.

Kean fell behind again 6-3 in the third, but clawed back to tie it at nine. This time, however, it was the Gators who jumped ahead 14-11

 Two aces by Rosario tied the match back up, and Kean took advantage of four Sage miscues down the stretch to win the set 25-21 and clinch the sweep.

The matchup against Purchase was never truly in doubt as the Cougars held the visitors to a negative (-.085) hitting percentage over the entire match. Kean racked up nine aces in the match, including two on back-to-back serves by Kyle Farley. Jedziniak (pictured left) finished the matchup with a team-leading four, while Bez Arslani was the only player with double-digit kills for Kean.

Purchase is now 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Skyline, while Sage fell to 0-7 and 0-3 in the league by the end of the day. Mount Saint Vincent was also in action inside Harwood on Saturday and topped both Sage and Purchase to move to 4-2 and 3-0 in the conference.

Kean will be back in action with a pair of non-conference neutral site games in New York City next weekend. The Cougars will square off against Nazareth College and Rivier University.