JAMAICA. N.Y. (March 14, 2015) – No. 1 Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team knocked off Hunter College and Stevenson University on Saturday.
 
The Ducks improved to 21-4, and extended their winning streak to 12. Hunter fell to 15-9 while Stevenson is now 12-10.

No. 1 Stevens 3, Hunter 0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-18)

The Hawks jumped out to an early 7-4 advantage before the Ducks took an 8-7 lead off back-to-back kills from juniors Alexander Carpenter and Chris Vaughan. After a kill by junior Steven Tarquinio brought Hunter within one point, Stevens charged ahead with a 7-0 run with a pair of kills from both senior Ryan Seifert and junior Tim Ferriter. The Ducks took set one off a service ace from Carpenter.
 
Stevens opened the second stanza scoring six of the first seven points behind the serves of senior Kevin Aeckerle and Vaughan. After the Hawks forced an attack error, the Ducks went on a 4-0 run to open lead to eight points. That would be as close as Hunter would get, as Stevens took advantage of a trio of Hawk miscues to prevent the deficit of getting any shorter. A double-block by Carpenter and Vaughan punctuated the set victory and gave Stevens a 2-0 lead.
 
The two sides were even through the first 12 points of the third period before the Ducks went on a 5-0 run off of a pair of unforced Hunter errors and a kill by senior Ryan Brandow. The Hawks cut into the lead and cut it down to 14-12 after a kill by sophomore Ben Crusinberry, the visitors went on a 4-0 run with junior Derrick Sokol serving. Once again Hunter didn't go down quietly and trimmed the lead down to four, but the Ducks rattled off the next three points to seal the victory.
 
The Ducks held Hunter to a .025 hitting percentage while hitting .382 themselves. The guests also held a 11.0-4.0 advantage in the blocking department. Ferriter and Seifert combined for 19 kills while Seifert chipped in three aces, four digs and two blocks. Aeckerle led the way with 32 assists with junior John Eddins chipping in 20 helpers.
 
Tarquinio led the Hawks with seven kills and four blocks while freshman Gary Anderson Jr. had 20 assists.
 
No. 1 Stevens 3, Stevenson 1 (22-25, 30-28, 25-23, 28-26)
 
Stevens quickly put the first three points on the board behind kills from Vaughan, Seifert and senior Daniel Smith. The Mustangs answered back with 10 of the next 13 to take a 10-6 lead. After a kill by senior Kyle Wisner put Stevenson up 14-10, but the Ducks fought back with three of their own thanks to a couple of errors. Stevens knotted the set at 22 all off a double-block from Smith and Seifert, but the Mustangs answered with a 3-0 closing run capped off with a service ace.
 
A service error gave Stevenson an early 5-3 lead in the second period, but a 5-0 run capped off by a kill from Ferriter pushed the Ducks in front. A side out gave the ball back to the Mustangs, but Stevens scored the next three behind two kills from Evans. Seifert recorded a kill to put the Ducks up four, but the pesky Mustangs hung around to score four of the next five to trim the lead down to one point. A kill by Wisner put Stevenson back in front but Stevens managed to equal the set at 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 before finally getting a double-block from Ferriter and Carpenter to end the rally.
 
Set three saw Stevens take a 9-6 lead with Seifert and sophomore Jordan Stuart serving up aces. Sophomore Michael Fehrs helped the Mustangs take over the lead, chipping in four straight points with two service aces. A Stevens timeout stopped the rally as Ferriter recorded another kill and a triple-block tied the match at 14. After a Stevens attack error put Stevenson up one, the Ducks once again took advantage of three attack errors to jump back in front 21-18. A kill by sophomore Nate Ellis brought the deficit to one, but Seifert powered home a kill to give Stevens a 2-1 lead. This set featured 10 tie scores and four lead changes.
 
Stevenson stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth period and they were able to hold onto that advantage until Stevens used a 6-1 run to even everything at 15. After swapping the next eight points, Ellis had a kill and the Ducks committed an attack error to give the Mustangs a narrow two point lead. As the match appeared to be heading to a fifth and final set after a Stevens attack error, the Ducks fought off a trio of set points before ending the match on a 3-0 run with kills from the senior trio of Smith, Evans and Seifert.
 
The Mustangs narrowly out-hit the Ducks .281-.279 while both squads had multiple players reach double-digit kills. Smith, Ferriter, Seifert and Evans all had over 10 kills for Stevens while Aeckerle and Eddins dished out a combined 56 assists. Smith, Ferriter and Eddins tied for the team lead with four total blocks with Seifert dropping in three service aces.
 
Stevenson received double-digit kills from Ellis, Wisner and Fehrs and saw senior David Moler hand out 57 assists in the losing effort.
 
Stevens ends its 13 match road-trip on March 25 as they travel to take on No. 5 Juniata College for the second time this season. The Ducks knocked off then No. 1 Juniata back at the Clash at Kean on February 7 in straight sets.

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