Sophomore Andrew Cranford helped lead the Ducks in their first day at the West Coast Tournament.

SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. (January 13, 2007) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men’s volleyball team opened up the first day at the West Coast Tournament with a 1-2 record on Friday on the campus of University of California-Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif.  In the first match of the day, University of California-Santa Cruz defeated the Ducks in five games (31-33, 30-25, 30-22, 30-26, 13-15).  In the next match-up, Stevens dropped to Carthage College (27-30, 19-30, 27-30).  In their final match of the day, the Ducks earned a three-game victory over Medaille College (30-22, 30-15, 30-27).  Stevens now stands at 3-3 on the season.

Sophomore middle hitter Andrew Cranford (Bel Air, Md.) led the Ducks against the Slugs hitting .438 with nine kills.  Senior middle hitter/outside hitter Scott Stoner (Wantagh, N.Y.) contributed 13 kills and a team-high 14 digs.  Senior setter/outside hitter Michael Schulte (San Bernardino, Calif.) totaled a match and team-high 48 assists along with two digs and five blocks.  Sophomore outside hitter Tomas Bochicchio (Saint James, N.Y.) chipped in with a team and match-high 18 kills and added 12 digs.

UCSC (1-0) was led by freshman middle blocker Austin Einhorn (Encinitas, Calif.), who hit .474 and collected 11 kills, two digs and seven blocks.  Junior middle blocker Jesse Garber (San Diego, Calif.) hit .421 (10-2-19) and added a team-high nine blocks.  Junior outside hitter Bryan Shires (San Diego, Calif.) led the Slugs with 14 blocks.  He also totaled five digs.

Bochicchio led the Ducks against Carthage with 13 kills and nine digs.  Schulte chipped in with 33 assists and a team-high 10 digs, while Stoner totaled a team-high 15 kills along with six digs.

Junior middle blocker TJ Bellei (Lake Forest, Ill.) led Carthage hitting .562, while senior middle blocker Rob Koehler (Waukesha, Wis.) hit .364 with seven digs.  Junior setter Matt Ulmer (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) picked up 26 assists and seven digs.

In their three-game sweep of Medaille, the Ducks were led by Schulte, who hit .333 with 28 assists and three blocks.  Bochicchio hit .357 for two games and totaled eight kills.  Stoner led the team with seven digs.

Junior setter/libero Drew Lewandowski (Kenmore, N.Y.) led Medaille hitting .500 (2-0-4) for three games.  He also picked up 23 assists and a team-high six digs.

Stevens out-hit Medaille .284 (35-12-81) to -.033 (28-31-90) in the match.

The Ducks will wrap-up play on the West Coast on Saturday when they face D’Youville College at 9 a.m. and New York University at 2 p.m.