The New York University men's volleyball team, ranked #9 in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top-15 Poll, picked up a hard-fought five-set victory over Ramapo College on Tuesday night, April 7, in Mahwah, NJ.
NYU (16-9) found itself trailing the Roadrunners (18-16) 2-0 before winning the final three sets for the 3-2 (22-25, 19-25, 25-16, 25-23, 15-9) victory.
"Awesome comeback against a quality team in Ramapo," said NYU Head Coach Jose Pina.Both squads traded points back-and-forth constantly in the first, but Ramapo ultimately took the final two points to take the set. The second set was not as close, but the Violets made a nice run toward the end while trailing 22-12. NYU was able to cut the Ramapo lead to 24-19 before falling down 2-0 overall.
"We were a bit shorthanded tonight due to conflicting class schedules, so we used a number of altered lineups and the guys responded very well," continued Pina. "It took a couple of sets for the guys to find the rhythm, but once they did they pretty much dominated the final three sets."Despite the loss in the second, the Violets took that late momentum and won the final three sets to take the match.
HIGHLIGHTS:-
Colin LaPorte led NYU with a season-best 16 kills. The junior outside hitter added six digs, four total blocks and two assists.
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Andrew Zhu notched 10 kills, seven digs, three assisted blocks, and one service ace.
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Phil Bueno finished with seven kills, seven total blocks, three service aces, and two assists.
"Excellent work by Zhu, LaPorte and Bueno hitting, and really strong blocking by the team overall," said Pina.
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Nick Benson registered six kills and a dig.
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Derrick Chiu and
Patrick Merrick split the setting duties for NYU, notching 20 and 15 assists, respectively. Chiu also had eight digs, while Merrick had five.
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Andrew Quirk led NYU with 13 digs, while
Jake Getz notched a career-best 11.
NYU closes regular-season play with a home match against #4 Springfield College at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center on Thursday night, April 9. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 pm.
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