HOBOKEN, N.J. (Oct. 22, 2021) – Sophomore Elle Maggio set career-highs in kills, blocks and digs and accounted for five points in the decisive fifth set to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team to a 3-2 (22-25, 25-12, 25-22, 23-25, 15-6) victory over Catholic University Friday night inside Canavan Arena.

Maggio finished the night with 15 kills, five blocks, four digs and a .300 attack percentage and was joined in double figures in kills by three other teammates as the Ducks have now won seven consecutive matches for the second time this season and improve to 21-3 overall on the year while Catholic fell to 5-21.

Sophomore Liz Patterson produced 14 kills while first-years Parker Adkins and Cleo Shannon had 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Stevens hit .244 as a team including a .400 attack percentage in the fifth while holding the Cardinals to .160 overall and .000 in the fifth.

Adkins nearly produced her fifth double-double this season with nine digs as well as a team-high four aces to go along with those 13 kills.

Defensively, Stevens had the block working throughout the night with 10 total blocks led by five apiece from junior Ava Smithing, sophomore Megan Dion and Maggio. It was the third time this season the Ducks finished with at least 10 blocks, three of which came in the last stanza.

Senior Kathleen Riegner did join the double-double club with 29 assists and 11 digs, second on the team to only Elizabeth Chu who racked up 20 to give her 21 straight matches with at least 10 digs.

Catholic was led offensively by a 13-kill effort from Brittany Connaster as well as a near triple-double by Mya Sullivan. Switching positions throughout the match, Sullivan produced 21 assists, 11 kills and nine digs in the loss.

Volleys and Points

• Stevens came out of the gates hot grabbing four of the first five points thanks to a pair of kills by Patterson.
• Trailing 7-3, the Cardinals were able to take the lead for the first time with a 7-1 run that featured kills from four different student-athletes.
• With the score 14-13 in favor of Catholic, the Ducks turned to their youth as Shannon and Adkins combined for three kills as a part of a 4-0 run to make the score 17-14.
• The lead remained three for Stevens until the Cardinals finished with a flurry as they grabbed six of seven points after falling behind 20-17 to force a set point at 24-21.
• Dion was able to put down a kill to stave off the first set point, but Connaster ended any threat of a Duck comeback with her fourth kill of the set to give Catholic a 25-22 win.
• The second set was all Stevens from the jump with Stevens winning 10 of the first 12 points to take an eight-point lead before the Cardinals put a stop to the flurry.
• The 10-2 run featured kills by Maggio, Smithing and Patterson as well as aces from Chu and Riegner.
• The Ducks were able to keep Catholic at arms-length from that point on as the Cardinals could not cut the deficit to less than seven at any point.
• On top 20-12, Stevens ended the stanza in style with five straight points capped off by the lone solo block of the night by Dion to win 25-12 and even things up at 1-1.
• After a dominant second set, the Cardinals were able to regroup and grab an early lead on a 6-2 run.
• Trailing 9-7, Stevens used two Shannon kills, a Dion ace and two Catholic errors to take a 13-11 edge with a 6-2 flurry of their own.
• Catholic rallied from behind to tie things up three more times in the set, including at 17-17.
• The Ducks were able to outlast the Cardinals late, however, as back-to-back double blocks from Dion and Patterson fueled a mini 3-0 run to put the score at 20-17.
• Leading 23-22 late trying to take a 2-1 lead, Stevens turned to Maggio who delivered in a big way with a kill and then got a perfect service by Adkins which led to an ace to win the set 25-22.
• The fourth set started with Catholic taking a 9-6 lead before the Ducks used a 6-1 run highlighted by kills from Maggio, Adkins and Smithing to make the score 12-10.
• After trading points back-and-forth, the Cardinals were able to take the lead back by rattling off four straight points thanks to back-to-back aces from Isabel Gonzalez to lead 19-17.
• The Ducks were able to tie things up at 19-19, but an attack error and a Sullivan kill put the Cardinals back on top 21-19.
• Stevens could not get back to even after that point as the teams went back-and-forth with points the rest of the way until Connaster found the court with a kill to win the set 25-23.
• With the match on the line in the fifth set, Maggio was able to step up in a big way to give the Ducks an early advantage.
• The sophomore from Denver, Colo., started things off with three kills in the first four points of the set as a part of a 6-1 run to give the Ducks an early edge.
• She was not done there, however, as she teamed up with Smithing and Dion for back-to-back kills later in the set to put Stevens on top 8-2 in the race to 15.
• Leading 11-5, the Ducks put things away when Adkins found the court with a pair of kills and Smithing added another as a part of a 4-1 run that ended the set and the match.

Match Point

• With 11 kills already on her stat sheet, Sullivan was looking to add one more with the Cardinals trailing 14-6 but could not do so as she missed her attack attempt long and sealed the 3-2 win for the Ducks.

Inside the Numbers

• After not playing a five-set match for the first 21 matches of the season, Stevens has now played two in the last three matches with a perfect 2-0 record.
• The Ducks have outscored their opponents 30-11 in the fifth set of matches this season.
• Held without a kill in the opening set, Maggio bounced back in a big way with five in second, four in third, three in fourth and three in fifth.
• At the service line, Stevens found the court for aces 11 times in the match making it the 13th time this season the Ducks have had double-digit aces which is the most since producing 14 such matches in the 2015 season.
• Reigner and Enkhsanaa Enkhbayar combined for 52 assists on the night to help the Ducks set a new season-high with 56 in the match.
• The Ducks held a 61-53 edge in kills, an 11-6 advantage in aces, a 10-4 edge in blocks and a 56-51 advantage in assists in the match.
• With 235 aces this season, Stevens now ranks inside the top-15 in all of NCAA Division III in total service aces on the year.
• Reigner now has 1,860 career assists and needs just 140 more to become just the sixth student-athlete in program history to amass 2,000 assists in a career.
• Stevens was able to side-out 64 percent of the time in the match while Catholic did so in just 52.7 percent of opportunities.

Unsung Heros

• They didn't fill up the stat sheet with kills (nine total between the two) but Smithing and Dion were fantastic defensively at the net all night.
• The duo had five blocks apiece and combined to hit .291 in the middle.

From the Sidelines (Head Coach Brianna Jones)

• "It was not our best performance tonight by any stretch. I did love how we were able to grind through the hard times to be able to pull out the W. I can't wait to get back out there for a couple of big matches tomorrow."

Next Up

• The Ducks return to the court with a pair of crucial matchups against regionally ranked opponents Saturday as they take on Montclair State University and New York University as a part of the NYU Tri-Match in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Stevens kicks off the day with a 12:30 p.m. matchup against Montclair. The Ducks have won eight of the last nine matchups between the two programs, but the Red Hawks took the victory in the last meeting on Sept. 7, 2019.
• Following that matchup, Stevens will then take on No. 13 NYU at 5:30 p.m. in a matchup of potentially the top two teams in Region IV. The Ducks have won each of the last three meetings between the schools including a 3-0 sweep of the Violets the last time out on Sept. 5, 2019.

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