Semifinal Match Point
HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 25, 2015) – Junior
Tim Ferriter notched 20 kills to lead the No. 1 Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team to the NCAA Division Championship Match in a 3-2 thriller over SUNY-New Paltz on Saturday.
The Ducks are 30-4, and are one victory away from the first team championship in school history. New Paltz fell to 27-6 on the season; three of the six defeats were courtesy of Stevens.
The hosts wasted no time in jumping out to an opening set 11-2 lead thanks to five Hawk attack errors and a trio of service aces by senior
Daniel Smith. However New Paltz did rally to trim the deficit to three thanks to a 4-0 run, with freshman Anthony Bonilla tallying a kill and junior Christopher Husmann serving up a pair of aces, forcing Stevens into a timeout. Three points would be as close as the visitors would get as a Ferriter kill handed the Ducks a convincing 25-18 victory.
Stevens used a 4-0 to jump in from of New Paltz in set two with Ferriter chipping in a kill and a pair of double blocks against his former team. The Hawks then took an 8-5 edge with a 5-0 run, with juniors Christian Smith and Andy Fishman along with Husmann recording kills. The Ducks retook the lead with a huge double block by sophomore
Jordan Stuart and junior
John Eddins, but two unforced errors and a kill by Husmann handed the lead back to the visitors. A 3-1 run by the hosts put them in front 23-22, but Bonilla and sophomore Steven Woessner recorded and a double block by Smith and Woessner on set point gave the Hawks a 25-23 victory.
A trio of kills opened the third period for the Ducks, but New Paltz quickly erased the deficit with a 5-0 run, capped off by an ace from Bonilla, forcing Stevens into a timeout. A mid-match 5-0 run gave the Ducks a 17-15 lead, finished off with an ace from senior
Ryan Seifert. A tight set throughout; it was knotted up at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 before a kill by Seifert and a double-block on a Bonilla attempt by junior
Etan Bennett and Eddins gave the Ducks a 25-23 victory.
The fourth stanza saw neither side able to take a stronghold on the set, with neither side go ahead by more than two points, but a 4-0 New Paltz run gave them a 13-9 lead they did not relinquish the remainder of the period. Stevens hung around, and after a Seifert ace, put the home team behind only two points. New Paltz used a kill from senior John Lutjen and a Seifert attack error to take the fourth stanza 25-21 and force the pivotal fifth set.
In the fifth and set, Stevens inserted junior
Chris Vaughan into the match as a libero, and that change helped change the momentum of the previous set. An early 4-1 run by the Ducks forced New Paltz into taking a timeout, and that helped cut the deficit down to one thanks to a Bennett attack error. The Hawks knotted the period at eight thanks to a kill from Woessner, but a 4-0 rally, thanks to back-to-back kills from senior
Daniel Smith, put the Hawks on edge. A 3-0 counter brought the guests to within one, but after a Lutjen service error put Stevens two points away from victory. A Bonilla service error forced the Hawks into match point, but they recorded a side-out thanks to a kill from Christian Smith. Once again, the former Hawk Ferriter came to haunt his former team, as he delivered a cross-court kill that stayed inbounds, setting the raucous cheering section into frenzy.
Stevens outhit New Paltz .239-.222, including a .258-.103 edge in the opening period. Ferriter was excellent, as he also recorded nine digs and contributed five total blocks. Seifert helped out with 15 kills, nine digs and five block assists, while senior
Kevin Aeckerle handed out 25 assists and had 10 digs. Bennett and Smith were forces in the middle, combining to record eight blocks.
New Paltz had four in double figure kills, with Christian Smith recording a triple-double of 11 kills, 28 helpers and 12 digs while Woessner had 18 kills and five digs.
The Ducks will play for their first NCAA Division III crown tomorrow, as they will take on either No. 2 Springfield or No. 6 Nazareth at 2 p.m.
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