Albany, NY— The Sage College men's volleyball team hosted the Wildcats of SUNY-Polytechnic and the Roadrunners of Ramapo College in a non-conference tri-match on Saturday afternoon. Sage took the first match over SUNY-Polytechnic, 3-1 (30-28, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23), while Ramapo took the match over SUNY-Polytechnic, 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-20). In the final match of the day, Sage topped Ramapo, 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21). Sage stands at 8-13 overall, while Ramapo is now 11-11 and SUNY-Polytechnic is 14-10.
Match #1
Against SUNY-Polytechnic, the Gators got 17 kills from junior Scott Sanders (Los Angeles, CA/Taft) while sophomore co-captain Mike Basile (Feeding Hills, MA/Agawam) had 15 kills. Senior co-captain Zackery Karl (West Monroe, NY/Central Square) racked up10 kills as the team combined for a .245 attack percentage in the match. Sanders had a .516 attack percentage with one ace and three block assists and 19.5 points, while Basile hit .464 with 7 digs, 1 ace and added 16.5 points. Karl had 2 aces with 7 digs and 13.5 points while also committing just 1 error in 20 receiving attempts for a .952 receiving percentage.
Sage junior outside hitter Shane Wenz (Valatie, NY/Ichabod Crane) led the Gators with his 13 digs and picked up 3 kills with an ace and was a perfect 15-0 on receiving attempts. He added 3 block assists as well for the Gators.
Sophomore setter Ryan Jennings (North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick Township) racked up 45 setting assists with a pair of kills and an ace with 5 digs and 2 block assists. Junior outside hitter Jarod Martel (Albany, NY/Colonie Central) also finished with 7 kills and 4 digs for the Gators with 2 block assists.
Sophomore defensive specialist Dan Mackey (Westerlo, NY/Greenville Central) racked up 11 digs for the Gators as they came from behind in the final set after trailing by 5 points to collect the 25-23 win in the fourth set.
For the Wildcats against Sage, senior Max Szuba (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) had 14 kills with 8 digs, and an ace while picking up 15.5 points in the match. Sophomore outside hitter Donovan Suguitan (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) added 13 kills, 3 aces, 6 digs and had no errors on 15 receiving attempts. He added 17.0 points for the match. Junior middle back Garrett Hassard (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta Sr.) picked up 10 kills with a .318 attack percentage and finished with 2 aces, 6 digs and a solo block.
Match #2
In the second match of the day, Ramapo got eight kills each from Jason Van Der Wilt (Maywood, NJ/Hackensack) and Stephen Codisodo (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa), while Codispodo added 5 digs and 3 block assists. Junior Eric Van Thuyne (Newtown, PA/Council Rock North) added 6 kills with 5 digs, 2 block assists and was perfect with no receiving errors on his 10 attempts. Rookie setter Josh Titus (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) added 26 setting assists with two aces and 7 digs for Ramapo.
SUNY-Poly's junior Connor Schultz (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) added 6 kills with 4 block assists and 2 digs. He led the team with his 8.0 points, while rookie Matthew Russo (Ronkonkoma, NY/Sachem North) picked up four kills with one ace and five block assists for 7.5 points. Szuba added 8 digs with 3 kills, while sophomore Andrew Bertino (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) picked up 7 digs with no errors in 10 receiving attempts with one kill and one block assist. Junior setter Adam Beitz (Brewerton, NY/Paul V. Moore) added 18 setting assists with four digs for the Wildcats.
Match #3
Ramapo won the first set, 26-24, but the Gators took the next three sets to sweep the Roadrunners for the non-league win.
Basile led the Gators with 15 kills and 15.0 points after adding a .258 attack percentage with 8 digs and no errors in 26 receiving attempts. Sage had a trio of players rack up 10 kills as they combined for a .281 attack percentage in the match. Wenz, Martel, and Sanders all had 10 kills each, while Wenz had 9 digs, 1 aces and 3 total blocks. Sanders added a .318 attack percentage with six digs and a solo block.
Karl had 6 kills with 8 digs, three aces and was 17-0 on receiving attempts. Jennings picked up 44 setting assists with 2 kills and 3 digs for the Gators. Rookie opposite Deshawn Fleary (Newark, NJ/Immaculate Conception Montclair) added two aces, while Mackey picked up six digs for the Gators.
Ramapo had a match-best 23 kills turned in by Van Thuyne as he had a .513 attack percentage to go with his 24.0 points. He had just one receiving error in 24 attempts and had 1 ace for the Roadrunners. Codispodo added 10 kills with 4 digs, while Titus had 42 setting assists with four digs and an ace.
Sage honored their lone senior Zackery Karl prior to the final match of the day. Karl surpassed his 400t career kill mark on Saturday and is currently No. 8 with 401 career kills, while standing sixth with 72 career aces. He also has 130 career total blocks and is No. 6 on the career list, while also adding 551.0 points which stands 6th best as well. He has played in 109 career matches in 312 career sets at Sage.
Wenz is also making his climb in the Gator career record book as he is now 9th with 367 career kills with 164 career total blocks which ranks No. 3 all-time. He also surpassed the 500 career point plateau on Saturday and is now No. 10 with 508.0 points as a Gator.
Sage returns to action on March 29 travelling to St. John Fisher College for an Empire 8 and United Volleyball Conference match with the Cardinals at 7 p.m.
