UNION, N.J. (2/15/15) – The No. 2 Kean University men's volleyball team opened its Skyline Conference season with victories over Ramapo College and Yeshiva University on Sunday afternoon. Kean is still undefeated on the year at 12-0. Ramapo ended the day 4-7 and 1-1 in the league while Yeshiva moved to 1-4 and is 0-2 in the Skyline. The victory against Yeshiva marked the 100th win in program history.
Match 1 vs Ramapo
Kean was down by as much as 19-13 in the first set. Marinus Taveonrnier, Ryan Casci and Peter Desvousges had combined for seven kills at that juncture and the Roadrunner defense had held Kean to a -.118 hitting percentage.
With Jacob Kauffman serving the Cougars made a run, cutting the lead in half at 19-16. Ramapo got all the way to 24-0: quadruple match point. Two Ramapo errors sandwiched around a Tommy Rosario kill brought Kean all the way to 24-23, but Desvousges finally ended it for Ramapo as the visitors took the first one 25-23.
In the second set Ramapo continued to play well, and leapt out to an 8-4 lead. This time the Cougars caught Ramapo early at nine on an acrobatic block/kill combo by Kauffman.
Ramapo got out in front by three again, but Kean rallied to tie at 16. Steve Schrank did a good job of running the Kean offense for a portion of the set, and Rosario and Ed Jedziniak's block got Kean its first lead of the match at 18-17. Kean stayed ahead on another kill by Rosario and Ramapo asked for time trailing 20-19.
Out of the break, Bez Arslani and Rosario got a huge block to extend the advantage to two. On set point, Jedziniak, Arslani and Kyle Farley all were in on a triple block that ended the set with a 25-21 Kean victory.
In the third, Kean capitalized on the momentum it had built and got out to the early lead. Arslani's kill made it 10-7 Cougars, but Ramapo fought back to take a 12-11 lead. The pivotal third set was tied at 12, 13 and 14. After that run, Arslani got a solo block and then a big kill to end the string of ties. Kauffman's ace gave Kean a 17-14 advantage and made the Roadrunners call timeout.
When Kean got the next two points (an Arslani kill and Kauffman ace) to extend the lead to five, Ramapo called for time again. Kean stayed ahead to win the third going away at 25-18 and take the 2-1 set lead.
Kean grabbed the lead to start the fourth and maintained it throughout. It was as large as four early on, but four different times Ramapo cut it to one. Jedziniak got a kill to keep Kean up in one instance, Farley got a kill another time and Kauffman finally stuck the dagger in the Roadrunners with a kill to go up two.
With the danger finally passed, Kean scored eight of the final nine points of the match to win what started out as a dangerous morning. Rosario led the team with a .385 hitting percentage and had five blocks. Farley finished with a team-high six blocks and Arslani had 16 kills to pace the team in that category. Ron Dunn handed out 32 assists in the match.
Casci also finished with a game-high 16 kills for Ramapo, and Jared Warner (pictured left) had an ace in the match for Kean. The Cougars hit .111 and .000 over the first two sets, but recovered to hit .429 in the third and .267 in the third and fourth, respectively.
Match 2 vs. Yeshiva
Kean had little trouble dispatching the Maccabees in the second match of the day, winning a 25-9, 25-15 and
Warner served another eight aces in the match with the Maccabees. Connor Evans (13) and Bill Fischer (11) both had double-digit kills, while Schrank and Kevin Barrow split the team's assist total of 41 nearly evenly. Nick Breslin had seven digs. Evans had an additional four aces in the match and Andrew Bliss racked up eight kills for Kean.
The Cougars will complete their homestand when they host No. 10 NYU on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
