HOBOKEN, N.J. (February 25, 2017)  – Senior outside hitter Gabe Shankweiler totaled 11 kills and sophomore Jacob Patterson recorded four blocks and dished out 22 assists and the No. Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team swept Baruch College (25-18, 25-9, 25-16) Saturday in a non-conference match at Walker Gym.

Stevens attacked at a season-best .500 percentage (39-6-66) in winning its second-straight game to improve to 13-2 on the season.

Samuel Rabidoux totaled eight kills for Baruch, who fell to 3-9. 

Volleys and Points

• Baruch held a 2-0 advantage, winning points on a kill by Nicholas Godino and a Shankweiler error.
• Stevens grabbed control of the set on a pair of Shankweiler kills and a Godino error.
• Baruch forced a tie at 8 before the power game of Stevens took control.
• Two kills each by senior Jordan Stuart and Shankweiler opened 15-12 lead. 
• Junior Thomas Burrell and sophomore Dylan DeBoer teamed with freshman David Lehman to attack the Baruch block, opening a 22-15 lead.
• Back-to-back kills by Stuart closed the first set.
• The two-point lead at the opening of the set marked one of two occasions where the Bearcats held more than a one-point edge.
• Stevens seized control of the second set on kills by Lehman and Stuart to open a 3-1 lead. 
• Three straight errors by Baruch opened an 8-2 lead for the Ducks.
• Five Bearcat attack errors opened a 16-4 lead.
• The sixth block of the set allowed Stevens to open a 24-8 lead.
• A Lehman ace finished the set.
• In the final set, the teams alternated leads until Stevens rang off three straight with Shankweiler keying the rally. The senior began the stretch with a kill and close it with an ace, sandwiching an Ian Bennett kill.
• After senior Alexander Carpenter gave Stevens a four-point edge (20-16), Baruch committed five straight errors to close out the match.

Match Point

• A Baruch attack error closed out the third set and the match.

Inside the Numbers

• The .500 attack percentage marked a season-high. The team's previous top mark was .437 (vs. Elmira, 2/18/17).
• The six attack errors committed by the Ducks marked a season-low.
• Stevens did not commit a ball-handling error for the fifth match in a row.
• The Ducks forced Baruch to hit .101 for the match (27-20-69). 
• Stevens held the advantage in all match statistical categories.

Coach Speak

• "If our middles are drawing and they did a great job today, it forces the middle on the other team to stay with them and allows our outside hitters to have only one block against them, or even if the middles are going late, it gives them a hole to hit through."
• "If the passing is on target and the middles are running, and today, our middles were very successful as well, it forces a one-on-one blocking situation, so that really allows your outside hitters to be successful."
• "After the first set, you get to know the other team, but we spoke to our players and, because our service was so strong and was forcing them to be very readable as to where their sets were going, that allowed us to triple block on the outside, which made our block even more successful because we could take away     both the line and the cross court."
• "We've always been a very powerful team, but to be honest with you, this team has a lot of finesse; they have both of those things available to them."
• "Today was a day that our middles were drawing and when a middle is able to do that it allows our outsides to swing away and there's less of a chance that they are going to be blocked."

Up Next

• The Ducks conclude their three-game homestand with a matchup with No. 5 New York University on March 1. Stevens will not play another home match until April 1.
• NYU defeated the Ducks in a five-set thriller on Feb. 15.
• Live stats and video links are available at StevensDucks.com. 

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