Press Conference | Highlights

Bracket | Match Preview

HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 24, 2015) – The 13th-ranked Rutgers-Newark men's volleyball team saw a historic postseason run end in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Championship Friday night in the Canavan Arena. The second-seeded Springfield College Pride defeated the Scarlet Raiders, 3-0, to advance to national semifinals.
 
The seventh-seeded Scarlet Raiders end their season with a record of 22-10, a Continental Volleyball Conference title and the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament win on the Rutgers-Newark campus. Springfield won by set scores of 25-14, 25-23 and 25-12 and will take on the winner of UC Santa Cruz and Nazareth College in one of two semifinals Saturday. Host Stevens Institute of Technology will battle New Paltz in the other.
 
The Raiders were led by nine kills from junior All-American Cody Chidsey, who hit .615 in the match.  Junior Travis Mintzer added five kills, two aces and six digs, with setter Kevin McCandless notching 19 assists and two digs. The team's only senior – Alex Barnhard – picked up four kills and three digs, with Mintzer and Chidsey leading the R-N blockers with two block assists apiece.
 
Set 1
The Scarlet Raiders doubled up Springfield early thanks to some solid offense from sophomore middle Nick Kuti and nice defense from Mintzer, but the Pride responded, using a 6-2 spurt to go on top 8-6. Chidsey helped the Scarlet Raiders even things (8-8), with a 7-1 Springfield rally opening a 15-9 margin.
 
Another 4-1 run for SC upped the edge to eight and Newark could get no closer than seven the rest of the set. Chidsey led the Raiders in the first set with a pair of kills, and Springfield hit .522 and received seven kills from freshman outside Ricardo Padilla Ayala.
 
Set 2
The second stanza was a thriller with the Scarlet Raiders nearly pulling even. Rutgers-Newark again doubled up the Pride in the second, taking a 4-2 lead on the serve of sophomore outside Jack Fredricks, and like the first, Springfield came back to tie things at four. A Kuti kill and an ace from Mintzer helped the Raiders to a 7-5 lead, as a kill from Barnhard and a pair of Pride errors forced a timeout from Springfield to slow the building Rutgers-Newark momentum. The lead moved to four (11-7) before a kill from sophomore Jack Fredricks stalled a Springfield run, and a thunderous Mintzer spike propelled the Raiders to a 14-11 edge.
 
Mintzer was able to halt a 3-0 Pride rally with a cross-court hammer, but a 5-1 Pride spurt gave them their first lead of the back-and-forth set at 16-15.
 
Kuti, Chidsey and Fredricks forced several Springfield attacking errors, before Chidsey and Mintzer combined on a big-time rejection to give the Raiders a 19-18 lead coming out of a Pride timeout. The Raiders pushed their lead to two (20-18), but were unable to extend and Springfield knotted the set at 22 late.
 
A kill from junior right side Greg Woods made it 23-22 Pride, with Mintzer answering with a well-placed attack to tie it back up. The see-saw-set continued with a Springfield marker, before a block by senior Keaton Pieper sealed the set for the Pride.
 
The Raiders hit .217 in the second, improving by more than 275 percentage points from set one, and there were 11 ties in the frame, by far the high for the match.
 
Set 3
Springfield began the third with a 6-1 run, opening a 10-3 advantage before a Kuti kill briefly quieted the hot start. A Mintzer kill and Mintzer-Chidsey block gave Rutgers-Newark some life, making it 13-7, but a 2-0 mini-spurt from Springfield sent the two teams into the third-set media timeout.
 
Springfield was able to extend its margin, leading 20-9 late, and the Pride went on to win the set 25-12, sweeping the match, 3-0.
 
As a team, Rutgers-Newark hit .062 for the match with the Pride ending at .415. Springfield was led by a combined 27 kills from Woods and Padilla.
 
Despite the loss, Rutgers-Newark will return every player from its 2015 roster except Barnhard. A roster that won 22 of its final 27 matches and reached the NCAA Tournament in its first year as a member of NCAA Division  III. The Scarlet Raiders won the CVC Championship, with three Raiders earning all-conference honors, McCandless getting CVC Tournament MVP honors, Chidsey earning CVC Player of the Year distinction and Trevino taking away Coach of the Year accolades.