Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics.
This past weekend, the Ramapo men’s volleyball team took home the ECAC Championship after defeating Penn State University-Altoona in the title game. Tabbed as the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Roadrunners had a tough path to the championship, having to first defeat No. 3 Kean University and then take down PSU-Altoona.
Against Kean in the semi-final, Ramapo won all three games by scores of 25-21, 27-25 and 25-17. In this match, Andrew Finnegan led Ramapo in kills with 20 while also adding 15 digs, which motivated the team. Right behind him was Jason van der Wilt with 15 kills. Josh Titus set his teammates up constantly, tallying a team-high 39 assists. Tyler Plitt had 14 digs. In the match, Ramapo hit .289 with 49 kills on 121 attempts. The team only committed 14 errors.
After sweeping Kean in the semi-final, Ramapo moved on to the championship game to take on No. 4 seed PSU-Altoona. In that match, the Roadrunners lost the first game by a score of 25-23, then proceeded to win the next three, 27-25, 25-9 and 26-24 en route to an ECAC Championship.
In the match against PSU-Altoona, Ramapo was once again led by Finnegan who had an identical performance to his semi-final match with another 20 kills. He rounded out his clutch performance with 14 digs, two blocks and two assists.
Another key performance in the championship was by van der Wilt who hit .400 with 17 kills. He also had nine digs, two assists, two blocks and an ace. Conor Charlow led Ramapo in blocks, tallying three solo blocks and seven assisted blocks in the match. He also had nine kills, five digs and an assist. Titus once again led the Roadrunners in assists, this time dishing out 45. On defense, Plitt led the team with 18 digs. Ramapo hit .284 in the match with 56 kills on 141 attempts.
Following the game, awards were given out for the tournament. The first announced was the ECAC All-Tournament Team, consisting of seven players. Ramapo had two players named to this team, Finnegan and van der Wilt. Plitt was named as the Tournament MVP with his 32 digs on the day.
For Ramapo, it was the sixth ECAC Championship in program history and its first since 2012. This is Mike Hrehovcik’s first championship with the team as head coach. He was a player when the Roadrunners last won the championship.
Overall, Ramapo can consider this a very successful season. Despite falling short in the Skyline Conference Tournament, the Roadrunners still finished the season with a 17-13 record and an ECAC Championship under their belt. They will undoubtedly enjoy the success into the offseason and come into next season with aspirations to collect even more hardware.
bschmid@ramapo.edu
