UNION, N.J. (2/10/16) – The Kean University men's volleyball team hit .425 as a team on its way to a three-set sweep of No. 8 New York University at home on Wednesday night. Jared Warner and Tommy Rosario – the Cougar middles – feasted on the Violet defense, with Rosario registering 16 kills and Warner hitting .818 (9-for-11 without an error) in the match.
Click here to see highlights of tonight's win!
Kean scored five of the first six points - Nick McIntyre had 2.5 of those before the Violets tried to rally with a timeout. NYU did tie the game at nine, but Kean scored the next five points with Jacob Kauffman serving, including an ace and a huge kill by Warner on an overpass.
After another NYU timeout, Kaufman served an ace to keep the pressure up. From there, Kean coasted to a 25-16 victory. NYU hit just .167 in the opening set, compared to Kean's .423. Warner was a perfect 1.00, going 4-for-4.
Kean took the first eight out of 12 points in the second, prompting the Violets to call another timeout. Rosario and Kauffman both had a pair of kills in the set by that point.
The Cougars hit a whopping .500 as a team in the second. Rosario was 6-for7 and Kauffman 6-for-8.
In the third an early eight-side rally kept NYU from getting their first lead early on, but the Violets did gain an advantage and went up by as much as 16-11 in the third set.
Still, the Cougars battled back to tie the score at 19. The set was again knotted at 20, when two great rallies helped the Cougars push ahead by two. More NYU errors followed and Kean won going away, 25-21.
Kean served eight aces in the match and held NYU to a .241 attack percentage. Kauffman finished with 11 kills (along with three aces) and Bill Fischer (pictured left) added eight kills as well as a team-best eight digs. Nick Breslin added six digs and McIntyre had five. Kevin Barrow set up 38 Cougar kills on the night.
Nick Benson led NYU (3-5) with 12 kills. The Cougars improved to 7-5 on the season with the win.
Kean will return to Skyline play next week on Thursday, February 18 at Yeshiva University in a 7 p.m. match.
