Mahwah, NJ: The Kean University men's volleyball team battled back in set one before defeating Ramapo in three sets, 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-21). The Cougars, who are ranked #5 in the latest AVCA Top 15 poll improve to 13-3 overall, 4-0 in the CVC and 2-0 in the NJAC. The Roadrunners now stand at 7-8 overall, 2-3 in the CVC and 1-1 in the NJAC.
The Roadrunners went on a four-point run to take a 17-14 lead in the first set before Kean was forced to call a time out. The Cougars would then take a 20-17 lead as they went on a six-point run of their own which included three kills and two aces. The two teams traded points before back-to-back kills from Ian Capp and an attack error from Ramapo saw Kean lead 24-18. A big kill from
Stephen Codispodo and back-to-back attach errors from the Cougars pushed the score to 24-21 before Capp put the game away with his fourth kill of the set, 25-21.
The Cougars controlled set two as they jumped out to a 12-4 lead on their way to a 25-15 win. Ramapo kept set three close tying the game 7-7 on an ace from
Eric Van Thuyne. The Roadrunners would trail by 2-3 points during the match before Kean took a 16-12 lead with a triple block from the Cougars. The Roadrunners tied the game once again with an ace from Van Thuyne 17-17 before Dylan Flor and
Brenden Russell would trade kills 18-18. A Ramapo attack error and two straight aces from Kean saw the Cougars back up 22-18. Van Thuyne would give Ramapo their 19th point of the set before Nicholas Buseski and
Andrew Finnegan traded kills as Kean led 23-20. Kean would wrap the game up on a kill from Adam Casper and an ace from Capp for the 25-21 win in set three.
The Cougars posted a balanced scoring attack while they hit .286 as a team. Milnazik tallied nine kills, two aces, four digs and four total blocks while Flor added eight kills on 12 attempts as he hit .583 in the match. Capp posted seven kills, six aces, six digs and one block while he led the team with 18 assists. Zach Gerken dished out 12 assists in the match while he added two aces and four digs. Jonathan Meyer led the team on defense with nine digs. Kean tallied 35 kills on 70 attempts and 15 errors.
Van Thuyne led the way for Ramapo with seven kills and a team high five aces. Finnegan added six kills while Codispodo,
Conor Charlow and Russell each contributed with four kills.
Josh Titus dished out a match high 22 assists while he added a team high six digs. Charlow led the team with three solo blocks while Codispodo tallied one solo block and one assisted block. Ramapo recorded 25 total kills on 80 attempts and 19 errors.
The Roadrunners return to action on Saturday, March 2nd when they travel to a non-conference tri-match in Lancaster, PA. Ramapo will take on #12 Lancaster Bible at 12pm before going up against Elmira College at 2pm.
