Photo by Mike Montalto
The Roadrunners men’s volleyball team lost to the Kean University Cougars in three sets (25-17, 25-22, 27-25) in a Skyline Conference matchup last night at the Bradley Center.
The game was a battle between the Conference’s top two teams as the undefeated Cougars improved their Skyline Conference record to 9-0 while the Roadrunners fell to 10-2 in the Conference this season.
“We definitely could have played better. We made a lot of mistakes on our side,” said Ramapo head coach Kevin Rodgers. “Anytime you make a lot of unforced errors, we’re just not going to be as successful as we want to be against a top team.”
The Roadrunners combined for 25 errors as a team compared to just 13 made by Kean.
Despite losing in three sets, the Roadrunners were in the game as they lost the second set by just three points and pushed the third set to extra points before falling 27-25.
Senior Peter Desvousges led the Roadrunners offensively with 10 kills in the match while contributing five digs on defense.
Freshman Marinus Tavernier had eight kills in the match for Ramapo while freshman Justin Feigeles and sophomore Nick Amos contributed six each.
Defensively, sophomore Kurt MacDonald led all Roadrunners with 13 digs in the match.
Ramapo freshman Matt Goldberg led all players in the match with two service aces. Rodgers credited his team’s serving with keeping his team in the game by getting Kean’s players out of position.
“Our serving kept us in the game. We were serving really aggressive and then their passers were out of system,” Rodgers said. “Every time we knew where the ball was going, versus them passing perfectly and them confusing us a little bit was definitely the difference.”
Kean remains the only team to defeat the Roadrunners in Skyline Conference play this season. Ramapo’s losing streak against the Cougars extends to six games dating back to Feb. 3, 2013 and includes a 3-1 loss in last year’s Skyline Conference Championship Game.
The Roadrunners will not get another chance at Kean during the regular season, but instead will have to wait until the postseason tournament to get another chance to defeat the Cougars.
The Cougars and the Roadrunners are currently the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Conference, and if they stay in those positions by season’s end, the teams cannot meet again until the Skyline Conference Championship Game.
However, Rodgers said that his team needs to focus on the remainder of the regular season and their opening round matchups of the Skyline Conference Tournament before shifting their focus back to Kean.
“We really want to concentrate on [New Jersey City University], who is most likely going to be the No. 3 seed, first. Then we’ll start focusing on Kean,” Rodgers said. “Last time we played NJCU they were close sets so we’re going to just focus on them.”
The Roadrunners have two more Skyline Conference matches left in the season. They will host the Sage Colleges on Saturday before they play Yeshiva University on the road on Monday.
mmontal1@ramapo.edu
