UNION, N.J. (4/11/15) – The No. 5 Kean University men's volleyball steamrolled its way to a fourth-straight Skyline Conference Championship with a 3-0 sweep of Ramapo College on Saturday. The Cougars completed their second consecutive perfect Skyline Conference season; the only two in the league's history.
Senior Bez Arslani (pictured below) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Skyline Championship after pounding a match-high 13 kills on 19 attempts with three blocks in the three sets.
Kean scored six of the first nine points of the night. The Cougars were hitting .545 early on, and Ron Dunn and Tommy Rosario both had aces. With the score 12-7, Ramapo called timeout after Arslani recorded what was already his fourth kill of the night.
The Cougars stayed ahead by at least four, until Ramapo put together a three-point run to close to within 18-15. Kean called timeout to stem the tide, and got a service error and a three-way block (Dunn/Arslani/ Kyle Farley) to steal the momentum back.
The Roadrunners were done in by service errors. They had five in the first set without an ace to show for it. Ramapo did swing well at .423 and had a .720 sideout percentage, but Kean was even better: an even .500 hitting and earned sideouts on 85 percent of is opportunities.
The teams split the first 28 points of the second set, until another Ramapo service error followed by an ace by Bill Fischer put the Cougars up 16-14. The Roadrunners tied it up again, but a huge solo block by Farley got Kean up by two, 19-17.
On the next point, the Cougars rejected three separate Ramapo attacks, punctuated by Arslani's solo stop, to go ahead by three for the first time.
Marinus Tavernier served Ramapo's first ace of the match to get his team within one, 23-22. But Rosario pounded one through a block to get to set point, and Jacob Kauffman skied above a double block to end the second set 25-23.
The Cougars outhit the Roadrunners again in the middle set, .458 to .273. The second set was tied 14 times, the last at 16-16.
With the score tied at five in the third, Jedziniak put one down and then Kauffman got two in a row to put Kean up 8-5.
At 13-10, Farley and Jedziniak teamed to block Ramapo three times on the same point to go up 14-10. Jedziniak had a huge solo block to improve the lead to six, and Kean pushed its cushion all the way to 21-12 with Jared Warner serving seven-straight points.
On championship point, Jedziniak, a senior, got his fifth kill of the evening to cement the title for the Cougars. The Kean senior class has won the league championship in each of its years in Union.
Dunn (pictured left) had 33 assists and added four kills on five attempts. John Cunningham tied Kauffman for the team lead with six digs. The Cougars outblocked Ramapo 11.5-4.5
Kean has won the Skyline Conference for the fourth-straight season. They clinched the league's automatic berth in the 2015 NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship to be held in Hoboken on April 24, 25 and 26.
The NCAA selection show will announce the schedule and the first round-pairings for the NCAA Tournament on Monday afternoon.
