Newark, NJ - The Cairn Highlanders traveled to Rutgers-Newark this evening to take on the Scarlet Raiders for their second CVC game of the season. Cairn was overpowered in the match and were quickly taken care of 15-25, 15-25, and 12-25. 

The Scarlet Raiders held an attacking percentage of .550 as a team for the match. On the contrary, Cairn's attacking percentage was just .016 across all three sets. Rutgers-Newark was led by Nick Kuti with 10 kills on 12 attempts with one error. 

The Highlanders were led by Andy Willits with six kills, and was the only Cairn attacker with a positive hitting percentage. Willits also led the team in digs with three. David Dager had five kills in the match, followed by Josiah Buss with four. 

Cairn stayed with Rutgers-Newark at the beginning the first set but the Scarlet Raiders pulled away from the Highlanders by capitalizing on errors. In the second set however, the Scarlet Raiders jumped on the Highlanders and put them in a 9-1 hole to start things off. 

The Highlanders recovered to pull within 10-5 but another run by Rutgers-Newark put them ahead 16-6. Alex Lower finished with 14 assists in the match; his opposition, Kevin McCandless, had 34 in total. The Scarlet Raiders finished off the second set same as the first, 15-25. 

Cairn hit with a positive percentage in the third set, committing their fewest errors among all three, but Rutgers-Newark's hitting was just too strong. The Scarlet Raiders hit 16 kills with just two errors in the third stanza on their way to a 12-25 score. 

With the loss, the Highlanders dropped to 7-6 overall and 0-2 in the CVC. Rutgers-Newark moved to 6-5 on the year and 3-0 on conference play. Cairn will next travel to Stevenson University this Friday, Feb. 13, to face off against the Mustangs at 7 p.m.