LORETTO, PA. — In the squad's first five-set thriller of the season, the Royals were defeated by the NJIT Highlanders by a 3-2 score (17-25, 25-22, 25-19, 17-25, 21-23) inside DeGol Arena on Saturday night.
SET BY SET
After a dropped first set, the Royals snagged the next two sets with gritty offensive performances from Shaphar Grant and Stirling Sims. Notably, the Royals had improved their hitting percentage to .350 to end the third frame after putting up a .000 and .172 in the first two sets. Up to that point, Grant had hit an .875 from seven kills on eight attempts and zero errors.
In the fourth, NJIT found their footing once again and swiped another triumph, tying the match at 2-2. Alessandro Negri had paced the Highlanders throughout the match to that point with a solid 17 kills and aided his squad to a .500 hitting percentage in the fourth.
In the final set, a point-by-point battle between the two teams ensued, with NJIT's Carson Williams just edging out the last two points for a drawn-out 23-21 victory.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Jack Brinkman finished with a team-leading 11 kills, marking his fifth match in 2024 scoring in double-digits and his fourth consecutive match doing so. Brinkman also led the ace-effort with four. Daniel Leitao whipped up a 32-assist, six-dig performance while Sims led the block with five. Freshman Chance Shampine finished with 10 kills, a career-high for the rookie.
REMARKS FROM COACH PRICE
"That was a very tough loss to go that deep in extra points in the fifth against a really good NJIT team," Head Coach Jeremy Price said. "I really thought we fought back well in the second and third set and I thought we showed a lot of character to get ahead 2-1. This is a match that we can grow and learn from. We can go back, regroup, and get ready for a good Saint Francis game tomorrow afternoon."
UP NEXT
The Royals stay in Loretto, Pa. to face Saint Francis at 1 PM on Sunday, Jan. 28.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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