Volleyball Goes 3-1 In Weekend Tournament

The Ramapo College women’s volleyball team went 3-1 in four matches this weekend in the Roadrunner Invite tournament, improving to 5-4 overall on the season. 

The Roadrunners opened the tournament by defeating Mount Aloysius College in a four set match 3-1, but then lost later that night 3-0 to Elmira College.

In day two of the tournament, Ramapo earned two 3-0 victories, first over Farmingdale State College and then Manhattanville College later in the day.

“We were able to take our mistakes in the second game on Friday and use them to our advantage on Saturday,” said Sara Pendleton, junior and middle blocker for the Roadrunners.

In the team’s first match, the Roadrunners followed sets one and three with dominating performances in sets two and four. After taking set one 26-24 and set two 25-10, the Roadrunners fell 24-26 in set three before rebounding to take set four and the match, 25-10.

Freshman Rachel Selmore, sophomore Cathryn Smart, freshman Emily Guzman and Pendleton lead the offense with 19, 11, 10, and seven kills respectively.

In the second match of the day against Elmira, the Roadrunners were blanked 3-0 and could not score more than 19 points in a set. Elmira took set one 25-17, set two 25-19, and set three 25-15.

“It definitely was not our best game,” Pendleton said. “I think we learned from it and played a lot better the rest of the tournament.”

Selmore once again lead the offense in match two with eight kills, but the team could not score enough as a whole. Smart and Pendleton totaled five and four kills respectively, but it couldn’t get the Roadrunners in the game.  

On Saturday, the team came out determined to be more effective than in their last match. In their first match of the day, Ramapo defeated Farmingdale State in three sets, 25-15, 25-18, and 25-18.

Selmore had 16 kills and received solid support from Pendleton, Guzman, and Smart who had eight, six and four kills. Sophomore Patricia Bergamasco contributed 17 assists.  

The Roadrunners continued their offensive dominance in their final match against Manhattanville and once again took the match in just three sets. Ramapo won sets one and two 25-16 and 25-19.

Manhattanville then made a desperate push, but then ultimately lost in the final set 29-27.  Again, Selmore lead the way with 16 kills and Smart, Pendleton and Guzman had eight, seven and four kills respectively.

The Roadrunners will look to carry the momentum they built up this weekend into two upcoming New Jersey Athletic Conference matchups. The Roadrunners will play Rutgers-Newark on Thursday at home before visiting Richard Stockton a week later.

Rutgers-Newark is coming off back-to-back wins and is 4-2 so far this season. Richard Stockton is 4-4, but will play five games before hosting the Roadrunners.

“Coming off two 3-0 victories, we should be able to take away from that and have a strong match on Thursday,” Pendleton said. 

mmontal1@ramapo.edu