All good things must come to an end, and the men’s volleyball team was confronted with this reality last Wednesday night. Their eight-game winning streak came to a close on Senior Night, where the Roadrunners played against New Jersey City University (NJCU) in Skyline Action.
Thankfully, this didn’t blunder their playoff chances and they still advanced onto the Skyline Tournament. Still, two Roadrunners in particular were also confronted with a different kind of ending.
Graduate student Reece Kirchofer and senior JoJo Meyer were honored during the team’s Senior Night ceremony. Alongside close friends and family, the two players were commemorated for all of the hard work that they have dedicated to Ramapo Athletics over the course of their respective athletic careers.
Kirchofer and Meyer both qualified for First-Team All Conference in the Skyline conference after their notable performances from this past season. Freshmen Brady Cascone and Jan Tracz made Second-Team All Conference and sophomore Sean McNally made the All Sportsmanship Team as well.
During Kirchofer’s 88 sets of his final year at Ramapo, he recorded 355 kills with a hitting percentage of .257. He also tallied 412 points this season, accumulating 1,126 total points over the course of his Ramapo volleyball career.
Meyer’s dominant offensive performance is one for the record books. After recording 913 assists this season, his total moves to 3,151 overall, which is third all-time in program history. In 2023, Meyer also wrote his name in the record books after earning 1,090 assists in a single season, becoming the 10th most all-time at Ramapo.
Despite a strong performance from the Roadrunners during their match against NJCU, Ramapo could not pull out a win. The four sets were all close, going 18-25, 25-20, 25-22 and 25-23 for a 3-1 loss.
Kirchofer and Cascone both delivered great performances, each recording double digit kills during the match. Kirchofer led the team with 19 kills for the Roadrunners, along with eight digs, one ace, one solo block and one assisted block for good measure. Cascone recorded 12 kills, three digs and one solo block. Tracz recorded nine kills, hitting .600 overall and added seven digs and one block with no errors.
Meyer led the team with 44 assists and 11 digs, adding one kill and three blocks as well. Ryan Westrich recorded three aces during the match, alongside McNally who tallied 10 digs for Ramapo.
The team will have a shot at redemption against NJCU in the Skyline Tournament playoffs tonight at 7 p.m. where they will face the Gothic Knights one more time.
bkeatin1@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
