Mahwah , NJ : The Ramapo College men's volleyball team needed a win tonight over SUNY New Paltz to guarantee them a spot in the 2005 NECVA Championship post-season tournament next weekend. The Roadrunners fell just short, 2-3 (30-26, 27-30, 25-30, 30-28, 8-15) and now rely on New Jersey City University to post a win over Mt. St. Vincent tomorrow night to get the final spot in the tournament. The Roadrunners fall to 21-13 overall, 7-5 NECVA Metro while SUNY New Paltz improves to 22-9 overall, 10-2 in the conference.

Ramapo grabbed game one, 30-26 before dropping two straight, 27-30 and 25-30 falling behind two games to one. The Roadrunners fought back to take game four, 30-28 forcing a fifth and deciding game. Ramapo struggled to get on top and fell short, 8-15 dropping the match-up two games to three.

SUNY New Paltz saw four players in double-digit kills behind senior Chris Ganje (Halfmoon, NY ) who recorded 23 kills on 41 attempts with only two errors. Greg Jackson (Central Square, NY ) and Mike LaRocco (Hauppauge, NY ) followed with 15 and 14 kills respectively while Ryan Bullard (Smithtown, NY ) recorded 13 on 31 attempts with three errors. Junior setter Kevin Buggs (Tonawanda, NY ) dished out a team-high 65 assists while Bullard led the defense with 14 digs. Bullard also grabbed nine total blocks and Joshua Spiro (Island Park, NY ) added seven in the win. As a team the Hawks posted 73 kills on 150 attempts with 24 errors hitting .327.

For the Roadrunners, rookie DAVID ROSS (Perth Amboy, NJ ) led the way recording 19 kills on 44 attempts with seven errors while ALEX LIKHOVIDOV (Ringwood, NJ ) and BRENDAN WHITFORD (Lyndhurst, NJ ) followed recording 18 and 11 kills respectively. Sophomore setter JORDAN ROLDAN (Jersey City, NJ ) and junior setter HECTOR RODRIGUEZ (West New York, NJ ) combined for 61 assists while WHITFORD led the defense with 11 digs. WHITFORD and RODRIGUEZ each added three service aces in the loss. The Roadrunners hit .218 with 69 kills on 165 attempts with 33 hitting errors.

The team will host Philadelphia Biblical tomorrow night at 7:00 PM for their final NECVA Metro match-up of the 2005 season