Photo by Justin Roth
The women’s volleyball team improved to 3-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference on Tuesday night by defeating conference rival Montclair State University Red Hawks.
The Roadrunners win came in four sets (23-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-17) and improved their overall record to 16-6 this season.
“We prepare the same way we prepare against any other opponent. We respect everybody we play whether they’re the strongest team or the weakest team,” Robert Pichardo, women's volleyball head coach, said. “Anybody who wants it enough can make it happen on that day, so that we probably expect our opponents so we prepare the same way no matter who we are playing.”
The Roadrunners lost a close first set to Montclair, but bounced back with three decisive wins. Freshman outside hitter Larysa Iwaskiw led the Roadrunner’s offense with 18 kills in the match. She also helped the defensive effort with 16 digs.
Junior Emily Harris led all players in the game with 29 digs, saving Ramapo several points in the match. Junior Katelyn Ward tallied ten kills and collected a team leading eight blocks in the match.
Junior Kaitlin Mac Iver was masterful in setting up her teammates to score big points, recording 34 assists in the match.
With a record of 3-0 in the NJAC at this point in the season after 3-0 wins over New Jersey City University on Sept. 23, William Paterson on Sept. 25 and Tuesday’s win over Montclair, the Roadrunners will want to keep on preparing and taking on one game at a time.
“Obviously, we have their scouting on them so we kind of somewhat adjust our defense to whatever they have and then hopefully it comes out the way we actually expect it,” Pichardo said. “Well, we have a lot of new players including last year we brought in chemistry from new players. Obviously when you have a young team, you won’t find the chemistry that you normally would like.”
The Roadrunners play tonight at 7 p.m. in a non-conference game against The City College of New York. CCNY is currently 5-12 on the season and is 2-3 in the City University of New York Athletic Conference. CCNY come into the game against the Roadrunners on a five game losing streak.
The Roadrunners will be looking to add on to their already impressive 16-6 record in the coming weeks ahead as they play four straight conference games right before the St. Joseph’s Long Island Tournament.
“Well, we had a lot of tough tournaments and we’ve been syncing pretty well together we’ve been switching up our defense,” Harris said. “I think we’re pretty ready to tag along.”
pmcguire@ramapo.edu
