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HUNTINGDON, Pa. (April 25, 2014) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team bowed out of the NCAA Division III Championship in the quarterfinals with a 3-0 loss to No. 2 SUNY New Paltz on Friday evening in the Kennedy Sports & Recreation Center on the campus of Juniata College.

Stevens finishes the year with a 22-10 overall record, while New Paltz improves to 28-3 and will play the winner of No. 3 Juniata and No. 6 Kean University tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the semifinals.

Set scores were 25-21, 25-20, 25-19.

In the first set, Stevens fell behind early, 10-6, after knotting the set up at 5-5 on a kill from freshman Gabe Shankweiler (Allentown, Pa.). Out of the timeout called by the Ducks, Shankweiler put down two more kills to bring Stevens back to within one at 10-9. New Paltz would score the next two points to go back up by three, 12-9, but Shankweiler kept the Ducks alive with two more kills, followed by kills from freshman John Eddins (Kula, Hawaii) and sophomore Chris Vaughan (Medford, N.J.), which left Stevens trailing by a point at 14-13. The Hawks would go on to build their lead up to 18-14, only to watch Stevens storm back and tie the set at 19-19 on an ace from sophomore Alexander Carpenter (Delaware, Ohio). New Paltz called timeout to stop momentum, and it worked, as the Hawks ended the set on a 6-2 run to claim the set, 25-21.

The second set was a back-and-forth battle that remained tied on alternating points up to 10-10 until New Paltz tallied the first consecutive points in the set since the Hawks scored the opening two points of the game.  It remained within a two-point spread until New Paltz notched a block to take an 18-15 advantage and forced Stevens to burn its final timeout. New Paltz found its stride from there and went up by as many as seven at 23-16 before winning the set, 25-20. Stevens was outhit in set two, .400 to .227.

New Paltz continued to roll as the third set got underway and built an 8-1 lead in the early goings. The Hawks remained in control all set and Stevens could only pull to within five on three different occasions before New Paltz went up by nine at 20-11. After the nine-point deficit, Stevens attempted to claw back and got to within four at 22-18, but it was too much to overcome as the Hawks closed out the match with a 25-19 set three win.

Shankweiler paced Stevens offensively with 13 kills to go along with five digs. Vaughan added nine kills and hit a team-best .350 overall with six digs.

Junior Kevin Aeckerle (Henrietta, N.Y.) dished out a match-high 30 assists in the loss and just missed a double-double with nine digs – another match-best. Classmate Dylan Schlosser (Emmaus, Pa.) also tallied nine digs. Carpenter notched both of Stevens' aces and chipped in four digs, three blocks and two kills.

Tim Ferriter led New Paltz with 10 kills, while Steven Woessner chipped in seven. Christian Smith and Christopher Husmann each tallied five kills, while Smith dished out 16 assists.

The Ducks hit just .093 overall in the match, while New Paltz swung at a .289 clip. The United Volleyball Conference foes were nearly even in kills, 33-31, in favor of New Paltz, but the Ducks committed 14 more errors. The Hawks also scored on six aces and totaled 12 blocks to just six for Stevens.

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