Mahwah, NJ: Ramapo earned a 3-2 (25-14, 25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 15-12) victory over the Hawks of Hunter College today at the Bradley Center in the 2011 men's volleyball season opener, before falling short to Newbury College, 1-3 (25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 22-25). Behind 16 kills each from junior Colin McNeill and senior Andrew Brown in the opening match, Ramapo opened the year at 1-0 overall, before a four set loss put Ramapo at .500 at 1-1.

McNeill hit 16-30 with six errors going .333 while Brown went 16-32 with five errors hitting .344 in the team's first win of the 2011 season. The team combined hitting .283 overall with 59 kills on 127 attempts and 27 hitting errors. Andrew Balint dished out 43 assists in his first collegiate match-up and Kevin McNerney led the team's defense with 13 digs. Hunter hit 48-109 with 20 errors (.257) as a team. Eric Barty led the Hawks with 22 kills and Stanley Martinez contributed 42 assists. Marcin Polak led the defense with 11 digs.

The Roadrunners opened to a one game lead after McNeill led the offense with five kills posting a 25-14 victory. The team combined hitting .435 with 12 kills on 23 attempts and only two errors while Hunter hit .100 with seven kills and five errors on 20 attempts. In game two, Brown and Jones each contributed four kills to lead Ramapo to a 25-19 win. The Roadrunners recorded a combined 14 kills hitting .400 with four errors on 25 attempts. Balint dished out 12 assists and added two service aces to the win. Hunter hit .471 with nine kills and only one hitting error on 17 attempts, led by Eric Barty with four kills. Hunter fought back and took the third set (25-23) behind seven kills from Barty. The team hit .267 with 13 kills on 30 attempts while the Roadrunners recorded 13 kills of their own with five errors on 28 attempts hitting .286 in the loss. McNerney tallied a team leading four digs. Game four again went to Hunter (25-20) tying the match at two games apiece. Barty again led the way with six kills and Hunter put away 12 as a team hitting .259 with five errors on 27 attempts. Brown led the Roadrunners with four kills in the game four loss. In the final set of the match, Ramapo came out with a 15-12 win behind three kills from Paul Konopacki and two each from McNeill and Joel Castro. The team went 7-17 with three errors hitting .235 ahead of Hunter's .200 with seven kills and four errors on 15 attempts.

In the second match of the day, Hunter earned a 3-2 (20-25, 25-17, 15-25, 26-24, 15-9) win over Newbury College behind 12 kills from Barty and ten from John Gemegah. Stanley Martinez contributed 38 assists and Polak led the team's defense with seven digs. The Hawks combined hitting .186 with 45 kills on 113 attempts with 24 errors. Polak posted five assisted blocks and Braien Otsla and Barty each earned points with three service aces apiece. For the Nighthawks, Max Daley led the offensive attack with 14 kills while James Beck and Matt Talamantes chipped in 13 and 12 respectively. As a team, Newbury recorded 54 kills on 117 attempts with 24 errors hitting .256 in the loss. Talamantes dished out 38 assists and led the defense, along with Michael Biuso, with ten digs each.

Ramapo opened match three against the Newbury Hawks with a 25-22 win behind five kills each from Brown, Jones, and McNeill. Balint assisted on 15 points as the team went 18-33 with five errors hitting .394. Newbury was led by five kills from Daley while the team hit .269 with 11 kills on 26 attempts with four errors. Talamantes dished out ten assists in the loss. The Nighthawks fought back to take game two, 25-23, from Ramapo to tie the match at one set apiece. Beck and Daley led Newbury with three kills each hitting .222 and .333 respectively. The team combined for 11 kills hitting .057 with nine errors on 35 attempts. Talamantes added nine assists and Biuso led the defense with three digs. Brown again led Ramapo's offensive attack, this time with four kills. Jones added three while Balint dished out ten assists. Ramapo hit 11-31 with 11 errors (.000). Newbury took the match with wins in game three (25-18) and game four (25-22). Beck led with four kills in game four while adding an additional six in the fourth and final set.

Beck finished the match with a team high 16 kills hitting .333, while Daley chipped in 12 kills of his own as the team went 46-112 with 19 errors hitting .241. Talamantes assisted on 43 points on the day and Biuso led the defense with 14 digs. The team combined for ten team blocks while Daley led the way with five assisted. Ramapo hit .202 as a team with 54 kills and 29 errors on 124 attempts. Jones led the team with 16 kills and Brown added 15, while McNeill and Konopacki recorded 12 and six respectively. Balint finished the day with 48 assists and McNerney wrapped up the match with a team high 13 digs.


The Roadrunners return to action on Wednesday, January 19th when they travel to NECVA rival New Jersey City University for a 7pm match-up.