WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Oct. 6, 2021) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team exploded offensively for a season-best .463 attack percentage while holding Wilkes University to just .067 to earn a 3-0 (25-8, 25-17, 25-13) sweep Wednesday at Arnaud C. Marts Center.

The Ducks have now won five straight matches and extend their regular season conference win streak to 63 consecutive matches as they improved to 14-2 overall and 5-0 in MAC Freedom play.

First-year Parker Adkins led the way offensively for Stevens with 11 kills on just 19 swings while classmate Cleo Shannon joined her in double figures with 10 kills in 18 attempts.

In total, the Ducks had just eight errors in the match and produced the best attack percentage in a single match since hitting .534 against the Sage Colleges on Oct. 7, 2017. The .463 average for Stevens was .200 points higher than their previous season best, a .278 hitting percentage against King's on Sept. 22.

Wilkes, meanwhile, got six kills apiece from Nicole Fitzpatrick and Alexis Reedy as they fell to 8-11, 1-3 in the MAC Freedom.

Defensively, senior Elizabeth Chu continued her stellar play in the libero jersey for Stevens with 15 digs while adding four assists. She has double-digit digs in each of the last 13 matches for the Ducks and ranks second in the conference with 5.02 digs per set.

In addition to the solid offensive efforts from Adkins and Shannon, sophomore Megan Dion was also extremely efficient with seven kills on only eight attempts for a remarkable .875 attack percentage.

Volleys and Points

• The Ducks dominated the opening set from the jump, scoring five of the first six points thanks to an ace from senior Kathleen Riegner and kills from sophomores Elizabeth Banas and Elle Maggio.
• Leading 9-5, Stevens got a kill from Shannon and back-to-back aces by sophomore Liz Patterson to give the Ducks a seven-point lead.
• The advantage would only grow from there. Leading 12-6, Stevens went on its longest stretch of consecutive points of the season, rattling off 10 consecutive points.
• More impressively the 10-0 run was not helped at all by any Colonel errors as it featured three Dion aces and kills from Adkins (4), Shannon (2) and Elizabeth Banas.
• On top 22-8, the Ducks again turned to Adkins to close things out and the first-year delivered with another kill to cap a 3-0 run that ended the set at 25-8.
• The Colonels responded early in the second set as they were the ones to jump out to an early 5-1 lead highlighted by three aces.
• Stevens answered immediately, however, with an 8-0 run that saw two Dion kills, four Wilkes errors, a Patterson kill and a Chu ace to make the score 9-5.
• After trading points back-and-forth for a good portion of the remainder of the set, the Ducks were able to pull away late when Patterson and Shannon teamed up to put down four kills as a part of a 7-1 run to send the second stanza to a set point.
• Patterson finished things off two points later and gave Stevens a 2-0 advantage with a 25-17 set win.
• The third and final set was close early as the Ducks were unable to create much separation and found themselves on top 11-8 nearly halfway through.
• As they did all night, Stevens was able to find another gear, this time with an 8-1 run that saw the Ducks get kills from Maggio and juniors Riley Koehler and Enkhsanaa Enkhbayar to push the score to 19-9.
• Leading 20-11, Adkins and Shannon again teamed up for back-to-back kills as a part of a 4-0 run to send things to match point.
• The Colonels were able to stave off the end of the contest twice before an attack error ended things and gave the Ducks a 25-13 win and a 3-0 sweep.

Inside the Numbers

• Stevens now has earned a sweep in 11 of its 14 wins on the year.
• The Ducks lowered their season opponents' hitting percentage to just .081 and now rank 11th in Division III in that category.
• Almost every stat was dominated by Stevens as the Ducks held a 45-17 edge in kills, an 11-5 advantage in aces, a 44-15 edge in assists and a 41-22 advantage in digs.
• It was the eighth time this season the Ducks produced double-digit aces (11). To put this into perspective, Stevens had just 10 matches with at least 10 aces in 2019 (34 matches).
• Maggio and Patterson both had solid games offensively as they combined for 13 kills on just 20 swings with just one error between them.
• Patterson was also fantastic at the service line with a team-high four aces while Dion added three and Riegner had two more.
• Riegner and Enkhbayar ran a near-flawless offensive attack, combining for 40 assists in the match.
• Stevens came out of the gate on fire as they hit a season-best .571 in the opening set with just one error on 28 total attempts.
• Conversely, the third set was the most solid defensive attack for the Ducks as they held Wilkes to -0.333.
• The Ducks now lead the MAC Freedom in team attack percentage (.210), opposing attack percentage (.081), assists per set (11.83), kills per set (12.64), blocks per set (1.76) and service aces per set (2.94).
• Individually, Chu ranks third in the conference in service aces per set (0.60) and second in digs per set (5.02).

Unsung Hero

• She had just seven swings on the night, but Maggio made them all count with six kills and no errors on the night.

From the Sidelines (Head Coach Brianna Jones)

• "After a weekend off, it was fun to see the team put into play all the things we took time to work on in practice. It definitely paid off and I'm looking forward to seeing how it continues to pay off throughout the rest of the season."

Next Up

• The Ducks will now travel to Selinsgrove, Pa., to compete in the River Hawk Classic starting with a matchup against Susquehanna University Friday at 7:00 p.m.
• The two teams faced off twice in the 2019 season with the River Hawks taking a 3-1 win in the regular season before the Ducks enacted some revenge with a thrilling five-set win in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Overall, Susquehanna holds a slight 4-3 edge in the all-time series.
• Live stats and video will be available on StevensDucks.com.

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