Mahwah, NJ: Sophomore
Shane Donohue (Freehold Twp., NJ) was named the 2007 ECAC DIII Men's Volleyball Most Valuable Player after recording 38 kills and 16 digs including a double-double in the semi-final match-up. Donohue helped lead Ramapo to the team's 4th ECAC Championship in the last five years with a 3-1 (30-25, 30-24, 26-30, 30-22) victory over New Jersey City University. Ramapo wraps up the 2007 season at 26-14 overall while NJCU ends the year at 17-13.
Game one went to the Ramapo, 30-25, game point on a
TC Elsasser (Barnegat, NJ) solo block after a full game of flip-flop scoring.
Brendan Whitford (Lyndhurst, NJ) led the team with six kills and
Shane Donohue (Freehold Twp., NJ) added six of his own.
Jairo Sierra (Fair Lawn, NJ) and
Jordan Roldan (Jersey City, NJ) combined for 13 assists in the win. Ramapo hit .270 with 16 kills on 37 attempts with six errors while NJCU went 16-42 (.238) with six errors. Jose Silva (Harrison, NJ) led the Gothic Knights with six kills and Maurice Washington (Orlando, FL) dished out 13 assists.
The Roadrunners took a 2-0 game advantage with a 30-24 game two victory behind a perfect 8-8 from
Tom Kohler (East Brunswick, NJ). Donohue added five in the win and defensive specialist
J Steinhauer (West Windsor, NJ) led the defense with four digs. Ramapo hit .500 as a team with 20 kills on 30 attempts with five errors. NJCU went 12-32 with six errors (.188) behind four kills from Silva and three from
Kevin Rodgers (Clifton, NJ).
The Gothic Knights fought back to take game three after falling behind by as many as five at two different points in the game. The team combined for 18 kills hitting .278 on 36 attempts with eight errors. Silva led the way with seven kills and Rodgers added four for the team while Washington dished out ten assists. Ramapo's Donohue led the way with four kills while the team recorded 13 on 37 attempts with nine errors hitting .108 in the loss.
Ramapo took game four, 30-22 to take the match 3-1. Elsasser led the team with seven kills and Whitford and Donohue added five each in the win. Sierra dished out eight assists in the win and Whitford and
Dan Sempkowski (East Brunswick, NJ) each posted four digs. Silva led the Gothic Knights with five kills and Washington dished out eight assists.
Ramapo hit .310 for the match over NJCU's .196. Donohue led the way with 19 kills and six digs while Whitford posted 16 kills, eight digs, and five total blocks. Sierra and Roldan combined for 60 assists and Sempkowski led the defense with ten digs. Silva finished the night with 22 kills and Robert Griffiths (Edsion, NJ) followed with 11 of his own. Washington dished out a team high 41 assists in their final match of the 2007 season.
In the semi-finals match-ups, #1 Ramapo defeated #5 Baruch, 3-0 (30-26, 30-26, 30-16) to improve to 25-14 on the year. Donohue led the way with a double-double, 19 kills and ten digs while Whitford posted 12 kills, four digs, three aces and three blocks. Sierra posted six digs and combined with Roldan for 41 assists while Elsasser posted seven kills and
Tom Kohler (East Brunswick, NJ) five. Baruch's Steven Rouse (New York, NJ) led the team with nine kills and Greg Waldvogel (West Hempstead, NY), Wayne Chow (Syossett, NY), and Danial Levent (Forest Hills, NY) each contributed seven. Boris Wyrwas (Poland) dished out 24 assists in the loss. Ramapo hit .356 over Baruch's .180. Baruch finishes the 2007 season, 21-18 overall.
In the other semi-final match-up, #3 NJCU defeated #2 Hunter, 3-1 (23-30, 30-23, 36-34, 30-24) behind Rodgers 16 kills, 14 aces, and 19 digs to improve to 17-12. Washington dished out a team high 54 assists and Thiago Siqueira (Newark, NJ) recorded 17 digs of his own. Hunter's Lukas Lyszak (Poland) and Shandu Foster (Long Island City, NY) posted 17 kills each while Zack Ripoll (Bronx, NY) dished out 49 assists. Ripoll added 15 digs and Lyszak added 16 leading the way. Hunter wraps up the year, 24-13 overall.