NEW YORK, N.Y. (February 14, 2018)  – Graduate student Gabe Shankweiler had 16 kills and four aces and senior Thomas Burrell totaled nine kills and eight blocks, but No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team fell to No. 7 New York University in five sets (20-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-14, 14-16) Wednesday evening in a non-conference match played at Hunter College.

Sophomore David Lehman led Stevens with 17 kills, but the Ducks fell to the Violets for the third time in four matches. The setback was the first for men's volleyball against Division III competition and snapped Stevens' nine-match winning streak. The Ducks fell to 9-3.

Evan Lindley matched Lehman with 17 kills and Neil Ferraro had nine blocks to lead NYU, who fought back from as much as a five-point deficit in the final set to win the match. The victory was the fourth straight for the Violets, who improved to 6-2 on the year.

It was the fifth straight five-set marathon between the local rivals.

Volleys and Points

• Lehman converted a Jacob Patterson set to open the scoring.
• After alternating the next series of points, NYU reeled off five straight points to open an 8-4 lead, forcing a Stevens timeout. Three Stevens errors helped to spur the NYU rally.
• After NYU took the lead, the teams exchanged runs that saw NYU come away a 15-12 edge.
• The Violets would continue to hold a slim lead throughout the remainder of the set, closing the opening stanza out on a service error.
• Trailing for the first time in 12 sets, the Ducks scored four of the first five points in the second to race out to an early lead. Consecutive Jack Bittker aces punctuated the run.
• After taking the early lead, it was Stevens that maintained the lead for the remainder of the set, keeping NYU at least two points back over the remainder of the frane.
• In the second, Stevens hit 0.562 and forced NYU into making the same number of errors as successful attacks (six). NYU's second-set hit percentage of 0.000 was the lowest of either team in the match.
• A pair of Burrell kills that surrounded two NYU errors closed out the second set.
• The third set saw the teams play to a 11-11 stalemate, with seven ties among the first 22 points.
• NYU blocked three straight Stevens attacks to take a 15-11 lead and force a timeout.
• A five-point run by the hosts broke the set open with NYU claiming a 20-12 lead on a kill by Alex Li.
• The Stevens offense rallied to pull the Ducks within three (23-20), but a double block by Andrew Zhu and Neil Ferraro brought NYU to set point and Zhu closed it out two points later.
• Looking to force a fifth set, Stevens came out firing in the fourth, scoring the first three points of the set, the final two coming on consecutive Shankweiler aces.
• NYU scored three straight points to tie the set at three. 
• The Stevens defense then took the set over, blocking three straight NYU attacks to take an 8-4 lead. Burrell paired with junior Dylan DeBoer for two of the three rejections.
• After taking the lead, Stevens kept NYU at bay and scored the final five points to force a match-deciding fifth set. Lehman and junior Cooper Diamond recorded a pair of blocks in the stretch and an NYU attack error closed the stanza.
• The final set saw Stevens jump ahead 5-3 on a Shankweiler kill and a block assist by Shankweiler and Burrell.
• The Ducks would open as much as a five-point lead in the final set (12-7) before NYU rallied.
• Five Stevens errors drew the Violets to within a point (13-12), but Diamond set down a Patterson set to bring Stevens to match point.
• An Alex Li kill kept NYU alive and a Stevens error tied the set at 14.
• A Li kill brought NYU to its first match point.

Match Point

• After a timeout, a Stevens attack error closed out the match. NYU scored the final four points of the match to steal the final set.

Inside the Numbers    

• Stevens outhit NYU 0.226-0.216. Stevens combined to hit 0.536 (19-4-28) in the second and fourth sets.
• The Ducks also came out ahead in  aces (7-4) and blocks (12-11). 
• Patterson and Matin Bikdeli each handed out a match-high 45 assists. For Patterson, it was his third match of 40 or more assists.
• Shankweiler's four aces led all players. Bittker recorded the other three for Stevens. 
• DeBoer recorded a team-high six digs.
• Stevens' 25 attack errors marked a season-high. 

Unsung Heroes

• Burrell again turned in an efficient match, connecting for nine kills on 11 attacks with just one error (0.727 hit %). In the recent NCAA rankings, Burrell topped the country with a 0.513 hitting percentage.

Coach Speak

• "It was a roller coaster game for the entire match, down to the last set."
• "We had great offensive output in the sets we won and the opposite was true in the sets we didn't."
• "We opened a solid lead in the fifth, but did not execute offensively and committed too many errors in a short game."
• "[Thomas Burrell] was unreal tonight again!"

Up Next

• The second-ranked Ducks open United Volleyball Conference play with matches with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and No. 12 Vassar College at Canavan Arena over the weekend.
• Saturday's matchup with the Engineers will be broadcast with via StevensDucks.com, while Sunday's matchup with the Brewers will be streamed on Facebook Live. 
• Live stats will be available for both matches.

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