HOBOKEN, N.J. (September 15, 2017) – Ten different players recorded at least two kills as the Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team won its seventh straight match with a 3-0 sweep of Alfred University (25-10, 25-17, 25-20) Friday to open Empire 8 Conference play.
Sophomore
Taleen Mitchell recorded a match-high nine kills and junior
Emily Piekarski added eight kills and a career-high 11 digs for the Ducks, who improved to 9-2 overall and 1-0 in E8.
Amber Smith had eight kills for the Saxons, who fell to 0-9 overall and 0-1 in league play.
Volleys and Points
- Sophomore Shelby Stewart bookended a four-point run to open the match with a pair of kills.
- An Alfred block assist put an end to the run, but the Ducks would go on to score nine straight points to take control of the set.
- Alfred was forced into more attack errors than kills, to go along with a set error and a receive error.
- Stevens recorded 16 kills on 29 attacks with only three errors to win the opening set.
- Alfred jumped out to a 3-0 lead to open the second set.
- After the teams exchanged points, Stevens took control of the set with an eight-point run, highlighted by three kills and three Piekarski aces.
- The Saxons would close to within four, but Stevens would score four of the final five points to win the set. Piekarski netted two aces and a kill to spark the run and senior Mckenzie Kingsbury converted a feed from freshman Olivia Poplawski closed it out.
- As they did in the second set, Alfred opened the third frame with a brief scoring run. The Saxons scored the first four points, matching its largest lead of the match.
- A back-and-forth battle, Stevens finally jumped ahead for good with junior Gianna Fazio at the serve. Piekarski recorded a kill and a block and Elisabeth Estep committed a ball-handling error to give the Ducks a 19-16 lead.
- The teams traded points before a block assist by Poplawski and Kingsbury brought match point.
Match Point
Inside the Numbers
- Stevens forced a negative hit percentage in two of the three sets. Alfred finished with only two more kills than attack errors. The .022 percentage marked the lowest by a Stevens opponent this season.
- The Ducks finished with a season-best .302 (39-13-86) attack percentage.
- Behind a season-high five from Piekarski, the Ducks totaled nine aces. King collected three aces and senior Sydni Horner added one.
- Poplawski dished out 37 assists. It's the third match of the year with more than 35 assists.
- Aubrey Totsline had 21 assists for Alfred. Totsline was the only player to record an assist for the Saxons.
- Horner's 14 digs led all players.
- Sophomore Abbie Clark saw her first action of the season, collecting a career-high two kills.
Coach Speak
- "Today our focus was talking care of our side and playing clean, low-error volleyball, and I think that we were successful in that."
- "It feels good to get our first Empire 8 win under our belt."
Unsung Heroes
- "Today we threw around a couple different lineups and it was another great team effort by everyone."
- "Emily Piekarski really stepped in nicely. Her serving was incredible and she worked hard on things we've been working on in practice. I'm really proud of the way she stepped in and took on a big role today."
Up Next
- Stevens takes on No. 24 Christopher Newport University and Arcadia University.
- Arcadia defeated No. 19 Eastern University in five sets, before falling to the Captains in four sets to close out the first day of competition.
- Both matches will be available on Stevens Athletics' Facebook page via Facebook Live.
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