Mahwah, NJ: The Ramapo College men's volleyball team and the Hawks of SUNY New Paltz, played game three to 43 points before the Roadrunners grabbed a slight edge to take the match, 3-0 in Mahwah. Ramapo earned the 3-0 (30-22, 30-20, 43-41) victory to improve to25-5 overall, 7-2 in the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association. New Paltz falls to 11-21 overall, 6-3 in the conference.

In game one, the two teams flip-flopped points until the Roadrunners went on a 5-1 with the score tied at 19 to take a 25-20 lead. The Roadrunners pushed for five more points taking the game 30-22. Senior opposite Brendan Whitford (Lyndhurst, NJ) and junior outside hitter Shane Donohue (Freehold, NJ) each recorded a team high five kills. Jairo Sierra (Fair Lawn, NJ) dished out a team high 16 assists and Dan Sempkowski (East Brunswick, NJ) led the team's defense with seven digs. The team combined for 19 kills with six errors on 40 attempts hitting .325 while the Hawks hit .091 with nine kills on 33 attempts and six errors. Alexander Jackson (Central Square, NY) and Michael Fink (Rochester, NY) each put down three kills leading the Hawks. Stephen Pendleton (Oneida, NY) contributed seven assists in the game.

Ramapo went up 22-12 in the second game before the teams trading points again until the finish for a game two, 30-20 victory for Ramapo. Whitford again led the Roadrunners recording four kills while this time rookie Jeff Elsasser (Barnegat, NJ) kept pace with the senior adding four kills of his own. Sierra again led the way with 14 assists and Kurt Backlund (Old Bridge, NJ) led the team with three digs. Jackson and Daniel Liberto (Rush, NY) each posted three kills for the Hawks. Ramapo hit .519 ahead of New Paltz's .233. The Roadrunners totaled 17 kills while the Hawks put down 12 as a team.

The third game again went back and forth with the two teams tied at 22 each. Ramapo went up 25-22 and the Hawks stayed strong tying the game again at 25 before taking a one point, 26-25 edge. The Roadrunners went on a mini 3-1 run to go up 28-27 forcing a New Paltz time out. Out of the time out, Ryan Huberty (Liverpool, NJ)) hit down a kill going up one and a Ramapo hitting error put the Hawks up, 29-28. The Hawks turned the ball back to Ramapo and rookie Matt Whitford (Lyndhurst, NJ) tooled the block to again gain the lead, 30-29 before a blocking error tied the game again at 30. The see-saw action continued until the final points of the game with the Roadrunners gaining a slight edge to take the game, 43-41. M. Whitford led the team with seven kills and Elsasser added six in the game. Sophomore setter Matt Scott (Edsion, NJ) recorded 25 assists and rookie Kevin McNerney (Bayonne, NJ) put up six digs. Ramapo recorded 26 kills hitting .333 in the game while the Hawks hit .360 with 23 total kills.

On the night, B. Whitford and Elsasser recorded 13 kills each while Kalbach posted ten. M. Whitford finished with seven and Donohue recorded eight in a two game appearance. Sierra dished out 30 assists, B. Whitford finished with 14 digs, and Sempkowski added 12 digs of his own.

Huberty recorded a team leading 13 kills and Pendleton dished out 30 assists on the night. Pedro Medina (Brentwood, NY) finished the night leading the defense with 11 digs.

Ramapo hit .367 in the win with 61 total kills on 120 attempts while the Hawks went 44-111 hitting .261.

Congratulations to seniors Brendan Whitford, Nick Kalbach, and Marko Benito.

The Roadrunners travel to New Haven on Thursday night when they continue their season at 7:00 PM.