Photo Courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
The Ramapo men’s volleyball team took on a triple-header this weekend, going 2-1 on the day. The two wins came against Sage Colleges and Yeshiva University, while the loss came from No. 7 Dominican University.
The first game of the day was the suspenseful five-set matchup against Dominican. The Roadrunners closed a two-set deficit to tie the match, only to end up losing the final set 15-11 (25-17, 25-21, 21-25, 20-25, 15-11). For Ramapo, outside hitter Justin Feigeles recorded a season high of 22 kills, while Paul Close had 12. Outside hitter Connor Brandow also had a season high of 11 kills. The Roadrunners went 58-142 with 29 errors, hitting .204. Setter Mikhael Erushalimski collected 51 assists, while outside hitter Spencer Shickora led the team’s defense with 12 digs
Even with the loss to Dominican, head coach Kevin Rodgers was happy with how his team played.
“Dominican was bigger than us, but our guys played tough throughout the whole match,” said Rodgers. “I told the team not to be disappointed because they gave it their all. Dominican is ranked seventh in the nation and we understand why. They played a very clean game that had few unforced errors. We made Dominican earn all their points, but the two sets we lost were given to them by our mistakes.”
For the Stars, they hit a combined .273 with 58 kills on 143 attempts and 19 errors. Jeremy Royko scored 16 kills, while Mason Solbrig added 12. Alex Coyne had 28 assists. Brooks Nevrly led the team’s defense with 11 digs and Coyne picked up 10 of his own. Dominican posted 13 team blocks to Ramapo’s nine.
The rest of the day was filled with two Skyline Conference wins. Against Sage, the Roadunners posted a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-19) win with Feigeles and Close earning 11 kills apiece. Ramapo hit .337 in the match with 40 total kills on 86 attempts and only 11 errors. Erushalimski had 32 assists, while Shickora posted seven digs on defense. Jordan Elam led the team with three total blocks.
In the final match of the day, the Roadrunners posted a 3-0 (25-10, 25-14, 25-5) conference win against Yeshiva. Outside hitter Patrick Wixted posted 14 kills, three assists, two aces and eight digs. Shickora added 11 kills to hit .667 in the match. Close tallied 10 kills and a team high 11 digs. Ramapo hit .411 in the match with 44 kills on 90 attempts and only seven errors. Feigeles had a team high of 32 assists while he added nine digs.
The Roadrunners return to action on Saturday when they face off with No. 6 Nazareth at the UC Santa Cruz Tournament in Santa Cruz, California.
“California will be a true test for us and our guys are excited for the challenge,” said Rodgers. “The team wants to be tested and they want to compete. Most of all, they want to win.”
rcarillo@ramapo.edu
