Conference News
Sacred Heart Upends Rutgers-Newark, 3-1
Sacred Heart Upends Rutgers-Newark, 3-1
NEWARK, NJ - Junior outside hitter Kalani Efstathiou
(Beaverton, OR/Valley Catholic HS) posted a match-high 24 points on
18 kills, four service aces and four assisted blocks while chipping
in 14 digs to lead Sacred Heart to a 3-1 upset of Rutgers-Newark in
an EIVA Hay match in The Golden Dome. Set scores were 30-27,
32-30, 27-30, 30-27 in the two-hour contest.
Pioneer sophomore Roger Parent (Burlington, CT/Lewis Mills) added
16 kills, eight digs and four assisted blocks as Sacred Heart
(11-8, EIVA Hay 1-4) got their first league victory against Scarlet
Raiders (8-13, EIVA Hay 5-2) who had already secured an EIVA
playoff berth.
Junior outside hitter Nate Stott (Clovis, CA/Clovis) tallied a
match-high 19 kills to lead five Raiders in double-digit kills, but
in the end Rutgers-Newark could not overcome 22 service aces and 36
attack errors. The Raiders had a 69-52 edge in kills while
the teams each had 14.5 blocks. Stott also had a match-high
17 digs.
Sophomore setter Tim Sadowski (Salem, NJ/Salem) piled up 41 assists
and added two aces, six digs and give assisted blocks for the
Pioneers who also got 10 kills, an ace, nine digs and three
assisted blocks from senior outside hitter Barry Smith (Shelton,
CT/Shelton). Sophomore outside hitter Jon Mercado
(Corona, NY/Academy of American Studies) had a match-high nine
assisted blocks and added six kills on .545 hitting.
Freshman outside hitter Eduardo Hernandez (Ponce, Puerto
Rico/Colegio Ponceno) notched 16 kills, an ace, nine digs and four
assisted blocks for Rutgers-Newark while sophomore setter Liran
Shapiro (Tel Aviv, Israel/Hoff HaSharon) came off the bench at the
start of set two and amassed 46 assists, 10 digs and four assisted
blocks.
Senior right side Kenny Rienecker (Glendale, NY/Academy of American
Studies) totaled a dozen kills, 13 digs, an ace and three assisted
blocks while junior middle hitters Kenneth Stumbaugh (Richmond,
VA/Deep Run) and Jon Keller (Reading, PA/Exeter Township)
contributed 10 kills apiece. Stumbaugh had a solo block six
assisted blocks, an ace and a career-high seven digs while Keller
chipped in six assisted blocks.
After taking advantage of 13 Raider attack errors to take set one,
the Pioneers battled to a 2-0 advantage in a see-saw second set,
overcoming a Rutgers-Newark attack while hit .310 (18-5-42) for the
frame. Parent and smith had five kills apiece and the Raiders
committed eight service errors in the crucial 32-30 decision which
put the Pioneers in command. Back-to-back kills by Efstathiou
and Parent ended the set.
In set three, Stott and Hernandez had six kills apiece as
Rutgers-Newark got back into the match, hitting .289 (17-6-38) as a
team and committing just four service errors while getting aces
from Hernandez and Stumbaugh.
But in the final set, Efstathiou had seven kills for Sacred Heart
and Rienecker notched seven for the Raiders, but a dozen attack
errors provided the margin to end the match in four sets. An
Efstathiou kills closed out the evening.








