HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 1, 2017)  – Freshman David Lehman totaled 24 kills over two matches and junior Thomas Burrell added 12 blocks as No. 5 Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball swept Nazareth College (25-18, 25-17, 25-17) and No. 2 State University of New York at New Paltz (25-22, 25-18, 26-24) in a United Volleyball Conference tri-match at Canavan Arena Saturday.

Gabe Shankweiler notched 15 kills on the afternoon, bringing his career total to 999 as the Ducks moved to 26-4 on the season and 6-2 in UVC play. 

The victories moved the Ducks into third place in the UVC. Stevens will take on Nazareth in the opening round of the UVC tournament on April 13. The UVC championships will be hosted by No. 3 Vassar College, who won the league's regular season title.

Steven Woessner tallied 11 kills on 20 attacks for the second-ranked Hawks, who defeated Nazareth in the middle match of the afternoon. New Paltz will be the fourth seed in the UVC tournament with an opening-round match with No. 15 Massachusetts of Technology. The tri-match split left New Paltz with a 22-6 record and a 5-3 mark in conference play.

Kane Wittorff tallied eight kills and an ace for Nazareth, who dropped both matches to fall to 18-12 and 3-5 in UVC play. Nazareth finished sixth in the UVC regular season.

Volleys and Points (Nazareth)

• In the opening match, a Dylan DeBoer attack error provided the day's first point.
• Nazareth opened a two-point advantage after a Shankweiler error. The Golden Flyers would maintain this slim advantage throughout the early portion of the set.
• Trailing 8-6, three straight block assists by the Ducks and back-to-back kills from Burrell and Lehman provided Stevens with an 11-8 lead.
• A Lehman kill and a DeBoer pushed the Stevens advantage to 17-12.
• A kill, an attack error and a block brought Nazareth to within three at 19-16.
• Stevens scored the next four points to regain control of the set and closed out the opening set on a kill by DeBoer.
• A Jacob Stillman ace and a DeBoer kill gave Stevens an early 4-2 lead in the second set.
• A block assist by Ethan Ross and Zachary Gillard drew the teams even at 7.
• The Stevens block party continued as the Ducks recorded back-to-back block assists as part of a six-point run that saw the Ducks earn a 13-7 lead.
• Nazareth rallied with four consecutive point to pull within 13-11.
• Burrell and Lehman sent back a Wittorff attack to give Stevens a 16-11 lead.
• With DeBoer at the serve, the Ducks reeled off four straight points, taking advantage of to two Nazareth errors.
• A Jake Kemp service error gave Stevens the second set.
• A Lehman kill opened the scoring in the final set. Stevens scored the first four points of the third set to take an early 4-0 lead.
• A Lehman kill pushed the Stevens advantage to 7-1. 
• Nazareth slowly chipped away at the Stevens lead, closing to within 13-12 on a Wittorff service ace.
• After a timeout, the Ducks secured consecutive points to take a 15-12 lead and then reeled off four straight points to open an 19-13 lead with Lehman at the serve.
• After the teams alternated points, Stevens scored four straight points, including a Patterson ace, to close the match.

Volleys and Points (New Paltz)

• A Steven Woessner kill opened the scoring in the opening set.
• The teams alternated points in the early going, tying on five occasions before the Ducks committed three errors to give the Hawks an 8-5 lead.
• Kills from Matthew Grace and Jake Roessler gave New Paltz an 11-8 lead.
• New Paltz reeled off four straight points to force a Stevens timeout, trailing 17-11.
• The timeout brought a renewed energy to the Ducks. After a Roessler service error, Stuart and Shankweiler blocked a Nick O'Malley attack to spark a run that brought the Ducks to within 17-15.
• A C.J. Borfitz kill pushed the New Paltz lead to 20-16.
• Two New Paltz errors and back-to-back blocks drew the Ducks even at 20.
• Roessler and Burrell exchanged kills to force another tie at 21.
• Shankweiler recorded an ace to give Stevens the lead at 22-21 as the Ducks scored four of the last five points to earn the come-from-behind victory in set one. New Paltz committed errors on three of the four points.
• A Lehman kill opened the scoring in the second set.
• After grabbing the lead (4-2) on a New Paltz attack error and a Stuart block, the Ducks maintained an advantage for the remainder of the set.
• A series of two-point runs saw the Ducks open a 15-7 lead.
• The lead would grow to as many as nine points and Stevens took a 2-0 lead in the match after a Roessler service error. 
• In the final set, New Paltz grabbed an early two-point advantage on a Roessler block and an ace.
• Four straight points saw New Paltz take a 10-5 lead.
• After a timeout, the Ducks ran off three straight points, including a Shankweiler kill to close to 10-8.
• Lehman's play on the outside became a factor in third set as the freshman outside hitter notched three kills as the Ducks turned the momentum and took a 13-11 lead.
• After a series of point exchanges, back-to-back aces by Bradley Schneider gave New Paltz an 18-16 lead.
• Stevens rallied to force ties at 19, 20 and 22, before warding off a New Paltz set point.
• A DeBoer ace gave the Ducks a chance to serve for the match at 25-24.

Match Points

• Back-to-back attack errors by Nazareth closed out the afternoon's opening match.
• A Bradley Schneider attack error closed out the New Paltz match, completing the Stevens sweep.

Inside the Numbers (Nazareth)

• Stevens attacked at a .261 (35-17-69) for the match and held the Golden Flyers to .080 (27-21-75), including a -.100 (7-9-20) in the second set.
• The Ducks held the edge in aces (8-2), blocks (10-4), kills (35-27) and digs (17-12).
• Jacob Patterson recorded 25 assists. 
• Lehman recorded a .409 attack percentage (14-5-22).
• Freshman Grant Burden recorded a kill on his only attack of the match. It was his second career kill.
• Burrell recorded eight blocks and Shankweiler tallied four. Burrell is among the national leaders in blocks.

Inside the Numbers (New Paltz)

• The Ducks attacked at a .290 percentage for the match and held New Paltz to just .170.
• Stevens forced 10 New Paltz errors in the pivotal first set.
• Despite the straight-set win, Stevens was edged in kills, digs, and aces. 
• In addition to his four blocks, Burrell added three kills on four attacks.
• Lehman's 12 kills on 20 attacks marked the 12th match with a hit percentage of .400 or better.
• Patterson tallied 28 assists and six digs. The sophomore setter dished out 53 assists over the two matches and did not commit a ball handling error for the fourth straight match. He has handed out 25 or more helpers in 20 matches this season.

Coach Speak (Martinez)

• "The essence of today's matches was our defense and serving."
• "We were able to keep both teams off balance with our serving, allowing our front line to set solid blocks, making it tough for the opposing hitters."
• "Burrell had a great blocking performance in the first match."
• "Against New Paltz, we had a similar game plan [as we did against Nazareth] in that we used our serve to set up our defense."
• "New Paltz is near the top of the nation in hitting percentage, led by Bonilla and Roessler, whom we held to .100 and -.056 respectively."
• "Our defensive effort was amazing throughout both matches with some great digs. We ran down a few amazing balls that converted to points and timely blocks."
• "It was a full team effort today, led offensively by Lehman and solid performances from our middles, Stuart and Burrell."

Up Next

• Stevens will host No. 9 Marymount University and Southern Virginia University in a tri-match on April 8. The two matches will close out the 2017 regular season. 
• Live stats and video links for both matches are available at StevensDucks.com.

Facebook: "Like" Stevens Athletics         
Twitter: @stevensducks
Instagram: @stevensducks
Snapchat: ducks_athletics