Rutgers-Newark Waltzes to ECAC Men's Volleyball Championship Game
The 2025 ECAC Men’s Volleyball Championship opened with a 3-0, straight-set victory for Rutgers-Newark over Ramapo College in the first semifinal of the day.
Rutgers-Newark hit 0.315 in the match, totaling 42 kills and just 14 errors on 89 attempts. Inversely, Ramapo had 27 kills and 13 errors on 82 swings for a 0.171 hitting percentage. Rutgers-Newark also held the edge with 10 aces versus just 4 for Ramapo, and a 25-21 advantage in digs.
Rutgers-Newark’s Michael Suarez and Ramapo’s Reece Kirchofer tied for the match-high with 11 kills and were the only two players to reach double-digit kills. The Roadrunners’ Jan Tracz had 9 kills and hit 0.563, but no other Ramapo player had more than 3 kills on the afternoon. Rutgers-Newark had a more balanced attack, getting 7 kills each from Vincent Lopez and Massimo Roco, plus 5 kills on just 9 attacks from Aidan Apito.
Derek Au had a match-high 32 assists for Rutgers-Newark and had the most digs with 9 as well. Suarez had 3 of Rutgers-Newark’s 10 aces, with 2 each coming from Roco and Lopez. The Scarlet Raiders also had 5 team blocks with Roco and Aleks Kolodziej having 3 block assists each.
For the Roadrunners, JoJo Meyer had 24 assists and one block assist. Sean McNally led the team with 8 digs but had 4 receiving errors. Tracz, in addition to his efficient hitting, had 2 service aces as well as a solo block and block assist. He was only bested in the block category by Kirchofer, who had 2 solo blocks and 1 block assist while adding 5 digs.
The first set was pretty closely contested as the teams settled in for the noon eastern time start. Ramapo led 3-2 early, but Rutgers-Newark strung together what became a 7-3 scoring run to take a 9-6 lead. Ramapo answered back to tie the game at 10-10, the first of five tied scores in the middle part of the set. The last tied score came at 16-16 after Ramapo celebrated a Brady Cascone kill, but a service error from Ryan Westrich and a setting error by Meyer gave Rutgers-Newark a quick, two-point advantage.
The Scarlet Raiders, including those two points, would score 8 of the next 11 points, turning a 16-16 game into a 24-19 score. Ramapo, however, enjoyed a series of errors from Rutgers-Newark and went on a 3-0 run to make it a 24-22 game. Meyer had a swing to keep the streak alive, but Kolodziej and Roco combined for a block to secure the first set for Rutgers-Newark.
Rutgers-Newark held a more distinct advantage in the second set, using a pair of 3-0 runs to lead 6-2 early. Later, after another 3-0 run, the Scarlet Raiders would extend their lead to 11-4 and seemed to be in control. Ramapo would not go quietly, however, as the Roadrunners slowly chipped away at their deficit and made it a 17-14 score. Rutgers-Newark called on Suarez to regain the momentum and he delivered, finishing three kills and combining with Roco for a block to make it 21-14 in an instant. From there, Rutgers-Newark were content trading points with Ramapo and finished off the second set, 25-20.
Similar to the previous set, Rutgers-Newark jumped out to an early lead, this time holding three-point advantages at 6-3 and 7-4. But this time, Ramapo had a more prompt response, using a 3-0 run to tie the game at 7-7. The Roadrunners, however, could not seem to get over the hump as they were always playing catch-up in the set, falling behind, fighting back to tie it or get within one point and then see Rutgers-Newark have yet another answer to maintain their lead. Then, with Rutgers-Newark holding a slight 22-21 edge, the Scarlet Raiders closed with a kill by Roco and a pair of aces by McNally to seal the 25-21 set and a 3-0 win.