HOBOKEN, N.J. (August 29, 2013) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team opens up its 2013 season on Friday, August 30 at the United States Coast Guard Academy Tournament in New London, Conn.
While at the tournament, Stevens will square off with three New England Region teams and will play Coast Guard in the final match of the weekend on the 31st. Coast Guard visited Hoboken last year where the Ducks came away with a five-set victory.
The Ducks are coming off a 17-18 mark in 2012 which included a trip to the Empire 8 Conference Championship final last November. The Ducks started the season on a 0-9 skid, but turned the season around to go 17-9 the rest of the way and were one set away from an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.
After a 7-1 ledger in the Empire 8, the Ducks finished second overall in the regular season - where they have been voted to finish again this season by the coaches - and locked up the No. 2 seed for the four-team tournament. A first round sweep of Ithaca College propelled the Ducks to the title showdown against 2013 preseason favorite Nazareth College. For the second time in as many meetings in 2012, the two squads played to five sets with Nazareth coming out on top in the final.
Head Coach Glenn DeHaven returns a solid core of upperclassmen, all of which saw significant playing time last year, to go along with six freshmen from his first recruiting class at Stevens. Of the five returning juniors and seniors, three of them were all-conference members last fall.
Seniors Samantha Gates (Wilmington, N.C.) and Mary Caulson (West Islip, N.Y.) and junior Katie Hall (Midlothian, Va.) will lead Stevens this season after superb campaigns one year ago. Gates was a second-team performer, while Caulson and Hall landed on the honorable mention squad. The two seniors were also named captains this season, as was junior Kirsten Salmins (Wyckoff, N.J.).
Gates handed out the third-most assists in a single-season at Stevens with 1,173 to become just the fourth player ever to reach that mark in 2012. She also moved up to No. 3 on the career list with 2,366 and will enter her senior campaign 832 assists away from the career record. The setter also tallied a team-best 79 aces to go along with 260 digs, 55 kills and 49 blocks. Caulson played in 119 sets for the Ducks and recorded 311 points, 259 digs, 248 kills, 49 aces and 25 total blocks. Hall hit at a team-best .263 clip and was second on the squad with 339 points and 276 kills. Salmins, strictly a back row player, tallied 211 digs in 123 sets as a sophomore.
Senior Hannah Gasper (Bourne, Mass.) and sophomore Annemarie Thomas (Durham, N.C.) will also be counted on after both played in nearly every match in 2012. Gasper, another defensive specialist, ranked second in digs with 310 to go along with 42 assists and 11 service aces. Thomas finished her freshman season with 234.5 points, 197 kills, 122 digs, 25 aces and 20 blocks over 129 sets.
Once the opening weekend is complete, Stevens travels a challenging road back to the postseason with three more tournaments, three conference crossover weekends and four tough mid-week regional matches.
On September 6-7, the Ducks head up to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to compete in the Vassar College Tournament. Over the two days, Stevens will be tested by four quality opponents in Vassar, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and No. 24 SUNY Cortland. Cortland reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last fall.
The following weekend on the 13th and 14th, Stevens will grace Canavan Arena for the first time as part of the Ducks Classic for three matches. SUNY Geneseo, Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham and Kean University will all square off with the Ducks.
Over the next two weeks of September, the Ducks play four highly contested opponents in SUNY New Paltz and Haverford College in non-conference matches, and Ithaca and Nazareth in the first Empire 8 Crossover in Oneonta, N.Y. On the 18th at 7 p.m., Stevens entertains New Paltz, a Round of 16 participant in 2012, for a mid-week match. That weekend, a trip to Hartwick College is in store for the Ducks as they play Ithaca on the 20th and Nazareth and Utica College the following afternoon. A rivalry match against Haverford is slated for the 25th in Haverford, Pa. at 7:30 p.m.
The Ducks host their second tournament of the season in the Stevens Invitational on the 27th and 28th of September. Farmingdale State College will be first up against Stevens at 6 p.m. and Susquehanna University awaits the Ducks for an 8 p.m. showdown. At 3 p.m. on the 28th, City College of New York concludes the Invitational for Stevens.
The final Empire 8 crossover highlights the month of October for Stevens on the 4th and 5th at Elmira College. Over the two days, the Ducks will take on St. John Fisher College and Elmira College on the 4th and Alfred University on the 5th.
Sandwiched between the final home matches of the season against NYU (October 9) and Vassar (October 16 – Senior Night), Stevens wraps up Empire 8 play in a tri-match at Houghton College on the 12th. The Ducks and Houghton play in a morning match at 11 and end the conference slate with a 1 p.m. tussle with Hartwick.
Stevens heads over to Baruch College on October 23 for an evening match and will look to avenge a five-set loss from 2012 against another NCAA selection. The regular season concludes on November 1-2 in what could be the toughest weekend of the season for the Ducks at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. Stevens opens with Clarkson University (31-7), ranked 23rd nationally, who reached the Round of 8 in the tournament last season on November 1 and then RIT (26-15) at 7 p.m. that same evening. The finale for Stevens will be against the University of Rochester (22-12) at 1 p.m. on November 2.
The Empire 8 Conference Championship is scheduled to take place on November 9 and 10 at the regular season champion's home venue. Elmira College earned that honor in 2012.
