Riverdale, N.Y. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Men's Volleyball team split a pair of Skyline Conference matches on Saturday afternoon, falling to Ramapo 23-25, 18-25, 21-25 before rebounding to beat Purchase 25-15, 25-6, 25-17. Freshman Michael Kochen (Holbrook, N.Y.) paced the Mount in its victory with nine kills.
 
In Saturday's opener, Mount Saint Vincent jumped out to an 11-8 lead after three straight points, but saw Ramapo score seven of the next 10 points to take a 16-14 lead in the first set. The Roadrunners did not trail again in the frame and scored the final point of the set on a Spencer Shickora kill to move in front 1-0.
 
In the second set, Mount Saint Vincent would produce just five kills and Ramapo scored four of the final five points of the frame to take a two set advantage. The Mount would take a 9-7 lead in the third set but allowed a 7-2 spurt from the visitors that saw them open a 20-15 lead. Ramapo closed with three of the final five points of the third set, including a kill from Matt Goldberg to earn the conference win.
 
Tyler Cucullu (Henderson, Nev.) and Neven Skoblar (San Pedro, Calif.) led the Dolphins in the match with six kills each, with Skoblar hitting an efficient .545. Brett Holiday (Stratford, N.J.) totaled six blocks in the match and T.J. Barczik (Lake Grove, N.Y.) lifted a team-high 11 digs. Senior setter James DiGiovanni (Bay Shore, N.Y.) rounded out the match with 18 assists, six digs and two blocks.
 
Ramapo was led by 11 kills and a .556 attack percentage from Ryan Casci and received a match-high 33 assists from Alec Weissman. Kurt MacDonald finished the contest with a match-high 15 digs.
 
Overall, Ramapo held the edge in kills 37-23 and service aces 14-3. Marinus Tavernier led all players in the match with seven aces for Ramapo. The Dolphins held the edge in total team blocks 8.5-1.
 
Mount Saint Vincent scored its second league win of the season in the second match of the day after dispatching Purchase in straight sets. The Dolphins trailed briefly in the third set but put together an 11-1 run to open a 19-11 lead and cruise to their seventh win of the season.
 
Kochen closed out the match hitting .667 for the Dolphins, posting nine kills in 12 attempts with just one miscue. He added five digs and a pair of total blocks to the winning effort. Cucullu chipped in with seven kills and two aces, while Skoblar produced six winners, six digs and a pair of blocks.
 
Freshman Logan Dickover (Las Vegas, Nev.) closed the contest with 18 assists and combined with DiGiovanni to record 28 of the team's 32 helpers. Barczik lifted seven digs to lead the Dolphins and Cucullu and Skoblar joined Kochen with two total blocks.
 
Purchase was led by four kills each from Kevin Carges and Chase Lokke and got six digs and nine assists from Kevin Egbert.
 
For the match, Mount Saint Vincent posted a 36-13 advantage in kills, a 5-4 edge in aces and a 6.0-4.5 advantage in total team blocks.
 
With the split on Saturday, Mount Saint Vincent moves to 7-5 overall on the season and to 2-2 in Skyline Conference play. The Dolphins will be back in action again on Sunday when they travel to Sarah Lawrence to take on the host Gryphons (11:00 a.m.) and Yeshiva (1:00 p.m.). 

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