UNIVERSITY PARK, PA–No. 5 Harvard swept No. 4 NJIT, 3-0, in the first round of the 2024 EIVA Conference Tournament hosted by Penn State inside Rec Hall Friday evening.
NJIT wraps up its season, finishing 11-15 overall after advancing to its fourth consecutive EIVA Conference Tournament and third season with 11 or more victories under 10th-year head coach Danny Goncalves.
Harvard snapped a six-match skid, moving to 12-12 on the season and advancing to the EIVA semifinal against top-seeded Penn State on Thursday, April 18 at 7pm.
Junior outside hitter Alessandro Negri, a three-time EIVA All-Conference selection, paced the match with 15 kills, adding nine digs while hitting .556 for the match.
Graduate student Carson Williams, named to the EIVA Conference first team, combined for seven kills on 15 attempts with just one error for a .400 hitting percentage.
Senior EIVA Conference second-team selection Griffin Fieseler finished the match with 28 assists, three kills, three digs and three blocks in his final collegiate career.
Antonio Feliciano finished the match with eight digs.
Harvard got things going in the nightcap in set one, scoring the first two points of the frame. NJIT responded and scored three straight for an early one-point lead, 3-2. After 11 ties, the final at 14-all, Harvard used a 3-1 spurt to take a two-point lead, 16-14, resulting in an NJIT timeout. The Crimson took the biggest lead of the set, 19-16, but the Highlanders responded and cut the Crimson deficit to one, 22-21, on a kill by Alessandro Negri. The Crimson won the first set, 25-22, behind a 3-1 spurt to go up 1-0.
NJIT took an early 6-3 lead to open the second frame but the Crimson battled back in the early teens, using a 6-1 run for a 14-10 advantage and jumped out to a five-point lead behind a quick 3-1 spurt for an 18-13 lead, resulting in a Highlander timeout. NJIT scored consecutive points to slim the Crimson lead to four, 22-18, on a kill by Negri and attack error by Harvard but the Crimson scored the final three points of the frame to go up, 2-0 with a 25-18 victory.
Both teams traded points to begin the third set with neither team leading by more than two until Harvard went on a 3-0 run for a two-point lead, 12-10, resulting in a Highlander timeout. The Crimson extended its lead to as many as five, 17-12, behind a 5-1 spurt, resulting in NJIT's second timeout of the set. The Crimson maintained control, pushing ahead by six, 21-18, but the Highlanders rallied back to close the NJIT gap to within four, 23-19, on a kill by Negri. A kill by Harvard secured the 3-0 sweep with a 25-20 victory upsetting the No. 4 seed NJIT.
