CLAREMONT, Calif. (September 3, 2016) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team split its final two games on the California road trip Saturday.

The team topped Rhodes College before dropping a match to California Lutheran University. 

STEVENS 3, RHODES 0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-9)
Stevens never trailed in the opening set, tallying 10 of the first 13 markers. After a Lynx kill cut into the Ducks lead and made it 18-13, freshman Sara Hain pounded home a kill to end the run. Junior Sydni Horner rolled off three straight from the service line, including an ace. Stevens concluded the set with the final three points, finished with an ace from sophomore Brianna Perez.

Perez keyed a 5-0 spurt to open the second stanza and the Ducks never let Rhodes get closer than eight points through the rest of set two. Freshman Casey King and junior McKenzie Kingsbury each notched kills during the final 4-1 run. Rhodes scored the two first markers in the final set, but King started a 6-0 run to give the Ducks a lead they would not relinquish. After a Ducks service error made the score 9-7, senior Mary Tobin scored 14 consecutive points to extend the lead to double figures. Tobin put away the match with a kill as the Ducks held Rhodes to under 10 points.

The team hit .440, committing just eight attack errors over the three sets. The freshman trio of Shelby Stewart, Hain and King had a combined 22 kills with one error while Tobin had a double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs. Horner totaled 12 digs while Perez dished out 32 helpers. 

CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN 3, STEVENS 0 (19, 25, 24-26, 18-25)
The Ducks gave the defending National Champions all they could handle, but were out-killed 51-28 which proved to be the difference. Stevens only committed 13 attack errors through the three frames, but only had 28 kills on 105 swings. 

In set one, Cal-Lutheran stormed out to an 11-3 lead before the Ducks chopped the difference in half thanks senior Christina Sciarra serves. That would be as close as Stevens could get though, as a service error handed the win to the Regals.

Stevens fell behind again in the second period, but took a 13-11 lead thanks to a 3-0 spurt, capped off by a Sciarra-Stewart double-block. After a service ace put the Regals up 23-21, Tobin slammed home a kill and an attack leveled the match at 23. But Cal-Lutheran would prove too much, tallying three of the final four markers to go up 2-0.

The Ducks used an attack error to pull forward 9-8 in the final set, but a 5-1 rally by the Regals seemingly put them in control. Stevens showed resilience and evened everything up at 18, as Tobin and Sciarra had back-to-back kills. The Tobin kill would be the last point Stevens would tally, as Cal-Lutheran tallied the final seven to end the match.

Tobin had 14 kills while Horner tallied a team-best 15 digs. Sciarra and Stewart each had four blocks, with King notching 12 digs.

The Ducks will host Hunter College Wednesday at 7 p.m. for its home opener.

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