Hoboken, NJ: The Ramapo College women's volleyball team, behind a firing double-double from
Larysa Iwaskiw earned a 3-2 (16-25, 25-12, 19-25, 15-25, 15-6) victory over Hunter College today in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Championship tournament. With the victory the Roadrunners advance to tomorrow's semi-final regional match-up against the winner of Eastern and Farmingdale at 1:30pm.
Iwaskiw collected a season high 37 kills and added 19 digs for the double-double as she led Ramapo to their 25th win of the season (25-5). Ramapo hit a combined 59-167 with 15 errors hitting .263 with
Karina Almeda adding 11 kills of her own.
Rachel Selmore dished out a team-high 28 assists and
Kristen Behrens added 16 digs on the day.
Kate Shirkey picked up 11 digs and the team recorded seven total team blocks.
Ramapo jumped out to a 3-0 start to open the first set as Almeda put away a kill and Hunter committed two back-to-back hitting errors. Hunter would get on the board with a kill from Samantha Barrett before a mini run from the Hawks capped with a ball handling error from Ramapo would put Hunter ahead, 5-4. Hunter would continue to string together points, eventually taking an 11-7 lead with a kill from Julia Connolly, forcing a Ramapo timeout. Almeda collected a kill out of the timeout to close the gap to 8-11 and with a 7-2 run from the Hawks, capped with an ace from Connolly, Hunter would gain an 18-10 advantage forcing a second Ramapo timeout. Down the stretch the Roadrunners would fall behind, 10-20 before four straight points from Iwaskiw (2),
Emily Guzman, and Shirkey would close the gap, 14-21. After a Hunter timeout, the Hawks would out score Ramapo 4-2 to take the set, 25-16. Hunter hit a combined .423 with 14 kills on 26 attempts and three errors as Barrett led with five kills and Connolly with four. Breanna Banske dished out 11 assists and Taylor Kerr-Haiduk collected a team leading eight digs. Iwaskiw led the Roadrunners with six kills as the team went 10-33 with four errors hitting .182. Shirkey led with five assists and Iwaskiw and Almeda each picked up two digs.
At the start of the second set, Ramapo would again jump out on top 5-1 after Behrens served three straight points for her team. Iwaskiw would get two kills to put Ramapo up 7-2 and a kill from
Lena Husslein would give Ramapo a six-point, 9-3 edge. After a Hunter timeout with Ramapo leading, 11-4, the Roadrunners would string together a few mini-runs with multiple points from Almeda and Iwaskiw for force a Hunter timeout with Ramapo ahead, 19-8. It would be Ramapo who would prove too much for Hunter down the stretch taking set two, 25-12 and tying up the match at 1-1. Ramapo was led by Iwaskiw with eight kills and Almeda added three as the team combined for 16 kills with just one error on 40 attempts hitting .375.
Rachel Selmore dished out six assists and Iwaskiw picked up seven digs. Hunter was led by Barrett and Connolly with three kills each and Banske dished out eight assists. Hunter hit a combined 9-33 with three errors hitting .182.
Ramapo would be forced to take a timeout as the fell behind 2-7 to start the third set. Four straight Ramapo errors would give Hunter a 4-0 start and two straight blocks would put the Hawks ahead 8-2. Ramapo would string together a 6-2 run capped off with a Hunter hitting error to close the gap to 8-10, but the Hawks would respond to take a 13-9 lead with a kill from Barrett. The Hawks would take control of the following points to go ahead, 18-12 with a kill from Kerr-Haiduk forcing the Roadrunners into a timeout. Sparked by a Hunter hitting error and capped off with a Hawk bad set, Ramapo strung together a 5-2 run to force a Hunter timeout and close the gap, 17-20. A kill from Connolly and two bad sets from Ramapo would put the Hawks ahead with a 23-17 advantage and the final points would go to Hunter to take the set, 25-19. Hunter was led by Kerr-Haiduk with five kills and Barrett added three as the team hit .150 with 11 kills on 40 attempts and five errors. Banske dished out 11 assists and Haley Trunkett picked up a team leading 11 digs in the win. Ramapo hit .070 in the loss as they went 8-43 with five errors. Iwaskiw and Almeda collected three kills each and Selmore dished out five assists. Behrens led the defense with seven digs.
Trailing 5-4 in game four, Iwaskiw served three straight points to take a 7-5 lead before Hunter took a timeout. Guzman put Ramapo up 10-6 with a kill before Iwaskiw recorded a kill of her own for an 11-6 lead. The Roadrunners took a 15-8 advantage with a kill by Almeda before Iwaskiw put down back-to-back kills to take a 17-8 advantage. The play would lie in Ramapo's favor in the remainder of the game earning the 25-15 set win and again tying the match, this time at two all and forcing a fifth and final set. Iwaskiw would lead with 12 kills as the team hit 17-35 with four errors hitting .371. Selmore dished out eight assists and Iwaskiw picked up a team leading five digs. Barrett would lead the Hawks with three kills and Banske assisted on seven points as the defensive leader was Trunkett and Cristy Pariama with four digs each. Hunter hit .214 in the loss.
In the deciding set, Ramapo would jump ahead 5-1 capped with a kill from Iwaskiw that forced a Hunter timeout. After the timeout they climbed to an 8-2 edge with two kills from Iwaskiw and an attack error from Hunter. After the switch, Guzman grabbed a kill and Iwaskiw would add another forcing Hunter to take their final timeout of the match-up, Ramapo with a 10-2 lead. Hunter would connect a mini run to close the gap, 5-12 but the Roadrunners would crush the final few points to take the set 15-6 and the match. Iwaskiw led with seven of the team's eight kills and Selmore collected five assists. Connolly led Hunter with three kills.
On the day, Barrett finished with a team-high 15 kills. Connolly added 14 and Kerr-Haiduk picked up 12 of her own as the team went 47-147 with 18 errors hitting .197. Banske contributed with 42 assists and the defensive leader was Trunkett with 24 digs.
