Tournament Homepage
HOBOKEN, N.J. (September 26, 2014) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball program notched a pair of straight-sets victories over Brooklyn College and Richard Stockton College on Friday to open up the Stevens Invitational in Canavan Arena.
Stevens is now 12-3 on the season with its eighth and ninth sweeps in 2014.
Stevens 3, Brooklyn 0 Stevens notched a sweep in the opener on Friday afternoon, 25-21, 25-12, 25-18, and hit .320 in the match with 11 service aces. Brooklyn swung at just a .149 clip in the match.
The Ducks came out slow against Brooklyn as they trailed, 3-1, in the early going of the first set. Stevens would answer back with the next three points to take a 4-3 edge after a kill from sophomore
Mary Tobin (Boothwyn, Pa.).
Stevens would eventually go up by five points, 13-8, but the Bulldogs fought back to notch the set up at 13-13. After another deadlock at 16s, Brooklyn regained the lead on the next point for the last time in the set despite tying up the scoreboard two more times. With the scored knotted at 21-21, the Ducks closed out the set on a 4-0 run which ended on an ace from
junior Catie Shelton (Central Square, N.Y.).
Shelton finished the match with 30 assists, five digs and two aces.
Brooklyn began the second set on a 3-0 run, but sophomore
Christina Sciarra (Montclair, N.J.) ended the streak with a kill. After three more kills from Sciarra put the Ducks ahead for good at 7-6, freshmen
Brianna Evans (Spokane, Wash.) and
Emilee Erickson (Wildwood, Ill.) posted a kill and ace, respectively, to force the Bulldogs to call a timeout at 13-7. Out of the break, the Ducks went on a 12-5 run take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
Sciarra guided Stevens to a sweep with a 25-18 third set victory on six kills and four aces. She finished the contest with a match-best 12 kills and four aces and hit .292 overall.
The Ducks hit .379 in the third set with 16 kills and just five errors on 29 opportunities.
Tobin swung at a .412 clip with nine kills in 17 attempts to go along with seven digs. Shelton maneuvered the offense with 30 assists, and added five digs and two aces.
Erickson paced all players with 10 digs from the back row, while Evans hit .417 with six kills on 12 tries. Senior
Katie Hall (Midlothian, Va.) added five kills for Stevens, while junior
Kristen Herchenroder (Breezy Point, N.Y.) tallied four.
Stevens 3, Stockton 0Facing a formidable opponent in Stockton to cap off Friday evening, the Ducks rolled to the three-set win over the Ospreys (14-3) with 25-23, 25-15, 25-18, set victories.
The Ducks once again eclipsed the .300 hitting percentage mark, swinging at a .348 clip in the night cap. Stevens began the contest hitting .289 in the first set and then went on to hit .308 and .480 in the final two games.
Sciarra and Evans led the way offensively, posting 10 kills apiece. Sciarra hit .409 overall with four digs, while Evans finished the match with a .381 hitting percentage to go along with five digs and a pair of blocks.
Hall contributed seven kills (.385 hitting percentage) with a match-best three aces, two blocks and two digs for 11 points. Tobin wrapped up the evening with eight more kills and six digs, while junior
Annemarie Thomas (Durham, N.C.) added four total blocks and three kills on a .429 clip.
Senior
Ashley Castillo (Cresskill, N.J.) stepped in at setter and handed out a match-best 32 assists with five digs.
Defensively, freshman
Sydni Horner (Columbia, Md.) tied a match-high with 14 digs to go along with four assists.
In a back-and-fourth first set, Stevens fell behind, 4-0, before Tobin put down three kills over the next five points to cut into the Ducks' deficit by one. Down 7-4, Evans ripped consecutive kills to continue the comeback at 7-6.
Stockton, however, answered back to with a 6-2 run to take its largest lead of the set at 13-8, only to watch Stevens with five-straight to knot things up at 13-13. After another tie at 14-14, Tobin recorded a kill and Thomas posted a solo block to give the Ducks their first lead of the set at 16-14. The Ospreys regained advantage at 18-17, but Evans factored into the next three points to put Stevens ahead for good. Sciarra ended the set with two kills in the final three points.
In the second set, Stevens jumped out to an 11-3 cushion and cruised to a 25-15 win. Stockton could only claw back to within six points on three separate occasions after burning both timeouts over the first 14 points on the set.
Stevens wrapped up the match in the third, 25-18, after six ties over the opening 30 points (15-15). After the final stalemate, Stevens outscored the Ospreys, 10-3.
The Ducks are back in Canavan tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. against Ramapo College. Stevens will then end the weekend against the United States Coast Guard Academy at 3 p.m.
