Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
The Ramapo men’s volleyball team won both games of their doubleheader on Saturday in straight sets, defeating New Jersey City University in the morning and then the College of Mount Saint Vincent at 2 p.m. in Skyline Conference matchups.
They defeated NJCU (25-12, 25-7, 25-13) before taking down Mount Saint Vincent (25-18, 25-18, 25-20).
The Roadrunners moved to 10-11 overall, but are currently in second place in the Skyline Conference with a 5-1 record behind only Kean University, who is 6-0.
“[The record] shows how close we are in our conference, but it shows that on a national level. We kind of need to get rid of that excuse of having just freshmen and sophomores,” said head coach Kevin Rodgers. “We’ve shown levels of brilliance, but we haven’t gotten to that level.”
The players themselves agreed that, despite being a young team, they need to find ways to win in the competitive Skyline Conference, like they did on Sunday.
“Conference games are crucial. They’re our ticket to the conference finals and ultimately NCAAs,” said sophomore outside hitter Ryan Casci. “We are a young team. Because of that our consistency isn’t quite there yet. If we work hard we’ll be able to minimize the errors.“
The Roadrunners only had nine errors against NJCU on Saturday and only 15 against Mount Saint Vincent.
“It felt really good to play clean,” said Rodgers. “That’s what I’ve been preaching. We’ve got to stop killing ourselves.”
The Roadrunners outhit NJCU by a huge margin, earning a hitting percentage of .426, while NJCU hit at just .171 percent.
“They could play better, so we have to be prepared for that for the next time we see them at their house,” said Rodgers. “We can’t take them lightly, for sure.”
In the game against NJCU, freshman Justin Feigeles had nine kills, while Casci recorded seven of his own. They recorded hitting percentages of .533 and .500 respectively. Freshman Marinus Tavernier contributed 11 kills against Mount Saint Vincent.
“[Having that depth] feels good. What their potential is and them showing that potential is great,” said Rodgers. “We just need consistency.”
The Roadrunners also outhit Mount Saint Vincent, with a hitting percentage of .341, while Mount Saint Vincent only hit .061.
“We just played our game. We were consistent and everyone was giving it their all,” said Casci. “MSV is never an easy game. They’re always competitive. Going into that game I knew they weren’t going to just roll over. I was expecting a fight and that’s exactly what they gave us.”
With under a month until the playoffs, the Roadrunners are looking to dominate the rest of their opponents.
“If we play to our potential, which I believe we will, then we will do exactly that. Kean will be a difficult game for obvious reasons. They’re just a fantastic team hands down, but no team is unbeatable,” said Casci. “Even though playoffs are coming up soon, we can only take our season one game at a time. We need to focus on winning every single conference match before we can even begin to think about playoffs.”
The Roadrunners are back in action on Thursday night in another doubleheader where they will face Rutgers-Newark and Sarah Lawrence College in another Skyline Conference matchup at the Bradley Center.
rmorik@ramapo.edu
