The New York University men's volleyball team was working well in most aspects of its match against Rutgers-Newark University at the Coles Sports Center on Wednesday, Jan. 27. With an aggressive effort, the Violets blocked shots and hit for a high attack percentage while limiting the opposition's attack to .193. Despite all of this, NYU (0-3) was plagued by 23 service errors, en route to a 3-0 (33-31, 30-24, 30-25) loss to Rutgers-Newark.

"Outside of serving, we really had a lot of improvement," said NYU head coach Jose Pina. "We challenged them; yet when we challenged them on the serves, we missed some, and as a result the percentage dropped off a lot."

The Violets, ranked seventh in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Men's Coaches Poll, were paced by a team-high 14 kills as well as eight digs from freshman Cooper Gwaltney.

Rounding out a balanced attack were senior captain Mike Ferragonio with seven kills, freshman Taylor Donovan with six kills, and junior captain Fran Hodgson with nine kills. Hodgson also contributed to six of nine team blocks for NYU. Junior captain Ori Oren led the team with 27 set assists.

Jon Keller led Rutgers-Newark with 13 kills in addition to seven block assists.

"We beat ourselves today," added Pina. "We would out-hit Rutgers-Newark and built some momentum to catch up to them. Then we would lose steam with a service error; we lost points at inopportune times."

NYU has gotten off to a rough start this season, opening with three powerful opponents. The Violets lost to Division-I St. Francis University (Jan. 12), Stevens Institute of Technology (Jan. 20), ranked fourth in the latest AVCA Poll, and now Division I Rutgers-Newark.

The Violets return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 2, when the team travels to Poughkeepsie, NY, to face Vassar College, ranked number eight in the AVCA Poll behind NYU.