Photo by Nicole Williams
The women’s volleyball team finished their 2014 campaign as the runner-up in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament after being defeated by Ithica College 3-2 (25-15, 22-25, 25-18, 25-27, 7-15) on Saturday.
In the semifinals, also on Saturday, the Roadrunners soundly edged Rutgers-Newark 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 27-25) to advance to the tournament’s final round.
“We were pretty confident,” said junior captain Emily Harris. “We played pretty well against Rutgers. We had a bit of a break and then we had to play later that day.”
For the Roadrunners, seven time New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week, 2014 NJAC Women’s Volleyball Rookie of the Year, NJAC All-Conference first teamer and American Volleyball Coaches Association New York Region Freshman of the Year, Larysa Iwaskiw added 10 more kills to her single season record total against Rutgers-Newark.
Additionally, she collected an ace, a block, two assists and five defensive digs. Junior captain and NJAC All-Conference first teamer Kaitlin Mac Iver continued to lead the team in assists with 24 in the semifinal match.
Then, she recorded two kills, three aces and seven digs of her own. Sophomore libero Irmak Dagistanli led the way with 25 digs.
For the Scarlet Raiders, freshman setter Nathalie Breining collected a team leading 19 assists to go along with a kill and six defensive digs. Freshman Karolina Kopacz led the team in kills with nine. She also added a block and seven defensive digs of her own. Freshman libero Sue Riley recorded a team high of 19 digs with an additional kill and three assists.
In the ECAC Championship match, the Roadrunners lost to Ithaca College in a match that took all five sets to find a champion.
“It was definitely a disappointment,” said senior middle blocker/opposite Katelyn Ward. “We had a lot of goals set for this season and once we fought through to the finals, we had it. But losing in five, it wasn’t like we were blown out; we fought really hard until the very end.”
Iwaskiw added 15 more kills to her single season record total against Ithica. Additionally, she recorded an ace, two blocks and a team leading 25 digs on defense. Iwaskiw finished the season with a Roadrunners women’s volleyball single season record of 543 kills and had a team leading 452 defensive digs on the season.
Mac Iver collected a team high of 47 assists in addition to a kill, an ace, a block and 14 digs of her own in the championship match. She finished the season with a team leading 1,035 assists.
For the Bombers, freshman setter/libero Kayla Gromen collected a team leading 45 assists to go along with two kills, two blocks and eight digs on defense. Senior outside hitter Rylie Bean led the team in kills with 23. Additionally, she posted two aces, a block, two assists and 17 defensive digs of her own. Sophomore libero/defensive specialist Maggie Mutschler posted a team high of 32 digs in addition to an assist.
The Roadrunners finished the 2014 season with a 26-10 record overall and 8-3 in NJAC conference play.
After the tournament, Ward felt really proud of being a part of the success that the Roadrunners have had this year.
“I’m really happy to be a part of it,” said Ward. “I didn’t play last year because I got really sick so I thought that my career was over. To come back and be so successful with teammates that I was able to join together with was really awesome. I had a great time the entire way; it’s sad to go but I had an awesome time from beginning to end. It was a great run for sure.”
pmcguire@ramapo.edu
