New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score MAHWAH, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | In his first match since being named Division III National Player of the Week, New Jersey City University freshman middle hitter SHELDON COURE (Torrance, CA/Redondo Union (CA)) continued his sensational play, hitting a colossal .688 with 12 kills, but Ramapo College posted its second best hitting percentage of the season and defeated NJCU, 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-16), in a Skyline Conference men's volleyball match on March 4 at the Bradley Center.
 
NJCU (6-9, 4-3 Skyline) had its six-match winning streak snapped. After losing its first eight matches of the season against difficult competition, the six-match outburst proved to be its longest winning streak since also winning six in a row from January 29 thru February 7, 2009. Ramapo improved to 12-4 (6-1 Skyline)—its sixth win in its last seven matches—and swept the season series from the Gothic Knights.
 
Ramapo, which previously hit .470 on Sunday against Purchase College (38-7-66), rode a hot offense to a .438 team attack rate—48 kills and just nine errors in 89 swings.
 
Coure, who was also named the Skyline Rookie of the Week for the second straight week, had his second best career hitting percentage—pounding out 12 kills against only one error in 16 attempts for a .688 percentage while contributing three digs and one block. He reached double figures in kills for the third straight match and fifth time in his young career.
 
Senior setter GARY PRESTON, JR. (North East MD/Rising Sun (MD)) tallied 26 assists and five digs. Sophomore opposite KENDALL TRIBBETT (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) had five kills and a block while junior outside hitter BILL LE (Jersey City, NJ/Snyder) posted six digs and four kills (4-1-19).
 
Sophomore middle hitter DAQUE WILCOX (Camden, NJ/Camden County Tech) finished with five winners. Sophomore libero JON DIAZ (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) collected eight digs while sophomore outside RAYMEL CASTRO (Newark, NJ/Barringer) had two aces.
 
But Ramapo had an incredible size advantage. Senior 6-foot-7 middle blocker Mike Kane hit .579 with 12 kills in 19 attempts (one error) and freshman 6-foot-8 opposite Ahjon Petty totaled a match-best 14 winners and .500 attack percentage (14-3-22). Senior outside Nick Hrehovcik finished with a match-high 10 digs and hit .438 with seven kills and no error (16 attempts) to go with two aces.
 
Ramapo setter Andrew Balint distributed 42 assists in 75 sets (.560) and chipped in two blocks. Also for the Roadrunners, Nick Amos hit .400 with five kills (5-1-10) and two blocks and Brian Colabella had six kills and six digs.
 
NJCU did produce offensively—13 kills in each of the first two sets—but Ramapo simply delivered more winners. RCNJ hit .552 in the opening game, collecting 17 kills with just one error (29 attempts) and after seeing its team attack dip to .212 with 13 kills in set two (13-6-33), came back with a .593 attack clip and 18 kills (18-2-27) in game three.
 
In the opening game, Ramapo never trailed and after facing a 6-6 tie, scored the next eight points to claim a 14-6 advantage before prevailing by the same eight-point differential.
 
A tightly-contested second set saw NJCU hold an 18-17 lead and after falling behind, 22-19, the Knights pulled with 22-21 and 23-22 on kills by Coure and Le, before a winner from Petty and an NJCU attack error gave the hosts a three-point win.
 
In the third set, NJCU held a 10-9 edge before Ramapo scored seven consecutive points behind the serve of Balint and five kills and one block by Kane, who accounted for three consecutive winners, and staked the Roadrunners to a 16-10 margin it wouldn't relinquish.
 
NJCU will return to action on Friday, March 7 on the first day of the 10^th annual York College Men's Volleyball Classic in Jamaica, Queens, NY. NJCU faces first-year program Marymount University (3-8), Lasell College (9-4), Lancaster Bible College (2-11), and Eastern Mennonite University (5-8) in the two-day event.

NOTES:

Ramapo leads the all-time series, 49-11 and has won the last 20 meetings since 2006. Ramapo won the first meeting between the teams, 3-0, on February 16 in Jersey City.