ONEONTA, N.Y. (OCTOBER 23, 2015) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team topped Hartwick College in four sets Friday.
 
The Ducks moved to 14-11 and 6-0 in the Empire 8 Conference, while Hartwick dropped to 9-18, and 2-4 in the E8.
 
The opening period saw points scored in bunches, as the Ducks opened the set by scoring 10 of the first 13 points. After Hartwick used a 7-1 spurt to close the gap to one, Stevens countered with eight of the next nine to put them in the drivers seat. The Hawks forced a trio of attack errors to get within four, but a service ace from freshman Emily Piekarski handed the Ducks a 25-20 set win.
 
In the second set, the hosts used three 3-0 runs and a 4-0 run to grab a 20-16 edge. After a kill by sophomore Brianna Evans, senior Catie Shelton rolled off five straight points, helped by back-to-back double blocks by Evans and classmate Mckenzie Kingsbury. An Evans ace and a kill by junior Christina Sciarra closed out the second set 25-23 for the visitors.
 
The Hawks stormed out of the gate in the third stanza, notching seven of the first nine points. A double block put the hosts up six, forcing Stevens into a taking a timeout. After forcing a sideout, Hartwick scored nine of the final 13 points to claim the set 25-15, cutting the lead to 2-1.
 
Stevens tallied six of the first seven points behind the serve of sophomore Sydni Horner, who was helped out by a pair of Hawk attack errors. Hartwick could not get any closer than five, as junior Mary Tobin and Sciarra had back-to-back kills to put the Ducks up 17-9. The Hawks the next two, but the Ducks closed out the match on an 8-1 run, winning the set 25-12.
 
Sciarra led the Ducks with 16 kills and finished with 11 digs, while Tobin also had a double-double of 12 kills and 13 digs. Horner averaged just over five digs per set, with Evans hitting .233 with 13 kills.
 
Kayla Baril led Hartwick with 11 kills, Hannah Armstrong and Alyssa Zeitler each tallied 14 digs in the defeat.
 
The Ducks close out Empire 8 Conference play tomorrow taking on Houghton College at 1:30 p.m. and Elmira College at 4 p.m.
 
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