MAHWAH, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University men's volleyball team (6-12) was swept in a non-conference tri-match on March 24 at the Bill Bradley Center, dropping a 3-0 decision to host Ramapo College (25-16, 25-13, 25-17) before losing to No. 10 ranked New York University, 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-23).
 
MATCH 1: Ramapo 3, New Jersey City 0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-17)
The Roadrunners (6-14) hit .386 overall with a 43-16 differential in kills in the sweep. RCNJ committed just nine attack errors in 88 attempts; NJCU had 21 errors and limited to a -.060 attack rate. Ramapo had 11.0 blocks as a team.
 
For Ramapo, sophomore outside hitter Eric Van Thuyne (Newtown, Pa.) hit .588 with 10 kills and no errors in 17 swings and senior opposite Garrett Fitzsimmons (Cartersville, Va.) had a match high 11 kills, hitting .318 (11-4-22) with seven digs and four blocks. Sophomore setter Lucas Inglis (Colts Neck, N.J.) dished 37 assists with six digs.
 
Defensively, junior middle hitter Brenden Russell (South Plainfield, N.J.), freshman middle Conor Charlow (Towson, Md.) and junior outside Paul Close (Sayville, N.Y.) each had four block assists. Charlow hit .625 with five kills (5-0-8) and Close produce eight kills (8-4-18, .222) and seven digs.
 
Four NJCU players had three kills. Sophomore outside J.J. Berdecia (West New York, NJ/Memorial) finished with seven digs and two aces.
 
Ramapo had a 79 percent sideout rate in the match (38-48) including 88 percent (15-17) in game one when it hit .344 with 14 kills (14-3-32). Game two was the best for the Roadrunners as they sided out 12 of 13 times—92 percent—and hit .500 as a team with 15 kills (15-2-26). RCNJ hit .333 with 14 kills in the third set.  
 
MATCH 2: NYU 3, New Jersey City 0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-23)
The Gothic Knights hitting percentage improved in the second match and NJCU nearly pulled off an upset in the third set but the nationally No. 10 ranked Violets won, hitting .390 as a team (43-11-82). NYU had a +25 margin in kills (43-18).
 
Sophomore outside Alex Li (Cupertino, Calif.), a First-Team All-American a year ago, was the biggest factor in the match for NYU, hitting .520 with 16 kills (16-3-25), three aces and two blocks. Sophomore setter Matin Bikdeli (Irvine, Calif.) handed out 34 assists.
 
For the Violets, sophomore libero Connor Keowen (San Ramon, Calif.) tallied 10 digs. Junior middle hitter Brendan Duggan (Newton, Mass.) had six kills in six swings, hitting 1.000, with three blocks and sophomore opposite Evan Lindley (Evanston, Ill.) had eight kills. Sophomore middle Neil Ferraro hit .556 with five kills (no errors) in nine attempts.
 
Junior libero David Penaherrera (Harrison, NJ/Harrison) defended 10 digs in the loss for the Gothic Knights. Berdecia and rookie right side Joseph Stawicki (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) had four kills apiece.
 
NYU had 15 kills in game one. NJCU led 14-12 before NYU used a 7-2 run to build a 19-16 lead. Up 19-17, Li sparked a 6-0 run to close out the game; he had three consecutive kills and four in a five-point stretch to ignite the run.
 
NYU picked up the pace in game two, hitting .632 as a team with 13 winners (13-1-19) and an 81 percent sideout ratio as the Violets seized an early 16-3 lead, including nine in a row.
 
The Violets added 15 kills in the third set, hitting .367 (15-4-30) although NJCU presented a challenge with 10 kills. Knotted at 23-23, Duggan had back-to-back kills to seal the win.
 
NOTABLES:

• Series vs. Ramapo: 65th meeting. Ramapo leads, 54-11, and has won the last 25 meetings since 2006.
• Series vs. NYU: NYU leads, 8-1, and has won the last eight meeting.
• NYU is ranked No. 10 in the AVCA Division III Top 15 poll released on March 20.

 
UP NEXT:
NJCU heads to Langhorne, Pa. on Monday, March 26 to face Cairn University (9-14) at 7 p.m. Follow live stats at http://www.sidearmstats.com/cairn/mvball. It will be the 18th meeting; Cairn leads the all-time series, 14-3, and has won eight of the last nine meetings.
 
GOTHIC KNIGHTS on SOCIAL MEDIA:
For the latest on #NJCUMVB, follow the Gothic Knights on social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and SnapChat. Preferred hashtags are GothicFamily and GothicGameDay.