HOBOKEN, N.J. (March 24, 2021) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team had four student-athletes with at least four total blocks and held No. 15 Stevenson University to a .125 attack percentage to knock off the Mustangs 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 17-25, 25-23) inside Canavan Arena Wednesday night.

The Ducks got double-digit kill efforts from both Jack Fyda (14) and Nathan Lancia (13) as well as eight kills on just 11 swings from Chris Varseveld to give first-year head coach Dan Buehring his first win over a ranked opponent in his brief time on Castle Point.

Defensively, Alex Franke led the way for Stevens as the racked up six total blocks in just three sets while Lancia and Varseveld added five each and setter Louden Moran picked up four more. Fyda, meanwhile, led the Ducks in digs with eight and libero Phu-Quy Ho added six digs to his ledger.

Stevens won each of the first two sets rather handily before dropping the third set. In the fourth, the Ducks held a 23-17 edge and avoided disaster down the stretch as they stopped a six-point rally for the Mustangs and won the final two points of the match to win 25-23.

The win for the Stevens gives them three valuable points in the Middle Atlantic Conference standings to move their average points per match 2.00 as they sit in fourth in the standings with five matches to play.

Volleys and Points

• The Ducks came out of the gates firing as they took advantage of four Stevenson errors in the first five points to take an early 4-1 lead.
• The Mustangs were able to climb back into the set with four straight points after falling behind 9-7 to take a 10-9 advantage.
• Stevens didn't blink, however, as they used a 5-1 run capped off by back-to-back double blocks from Percy Bickford and Chris Varseveld as well as Alex Franke and Nathan Lancia to grab the lead at 18-14.
• The block party did not stop there with two of the next three points for the Ducks coming on big double blocks by the combination of Franke and Moran.
• Leading 23-19 late in the set, Fyda decided to end things himself as he put down fourth kill of the set and followed it up with an ace to win set one 25-19.
• Much like the first, Stevens started well in the second set as a quick 4-0 run that featured a Fyda service ace, a Varseveld and Lancia double block and a Varseveld kill built up an early 7-3 edge.
• After trading points back-and-forth to 14-11, the Ducks rattled off four straight points once again on a Bickford kill, a Varseveld ace and another Franke/Lancia double block.
• Stevenson was able to cut the edge back to five at 20-15 with three straight points of their own but Stevens put the contest away when Varseveld accounted for his fourth point of the set (two kills, one block and an ace) with a kill down the line to win the set 25-18.
• Heading into the third, the Ducks were thinking about a sweep but the Mustangs had other plans as they scored seven of the first 10 points in the set to take an early four-point lead.
• After Stevens climbed back within two at 8-6, Stevenson began another long rally as they used an 8-2 run that featured a pair of aces and a pair of kills to lead 16-8.
• The Ducks did not go away quietly with kills from Lancia and Fyda as well as a Varseveld ace cut the deficit to 19-14.
• The edge was too much too overcome, though, as the Mustangs took the final four points of the set to win 25-17 and send things to a fourth set.
• Dropping the third set did not seem to bother Stevens too much in the fourth as they used kills from Fyda, Carver Weirick and Lancia as well as another Fyda ace as a part of a 5-0 run to take an early 7-3 edge.
• After keeping Stevenson at arms-length for the majority of the remainder of the set, the Ducks swelled their lead to seven at 22-15 thanks to another Varseveld/Moran combo block.
• Things got dicey down the stretch with the Mustangs scoring eight of the next nine points to knot things at 23 and threaten to send it to a fifth set.
• With the match on the line, Stevens turned to a couple of familiar faces as Varseveld put down a kill to give the Ducks a 24-23 lead and Lancia found the court for his 13th kill to clinch the set 25-23 and the match 3-1.

Inside the Numbers

• Stevens held Logan Smiley, the Mustang's top attacker, to an .077 attack percentage in the match after he came into the contest ranked fourth in the MAC hitting .349.
• The Ducks finished the match with a 65.1 side-out percentage compared to just 60.4 percent for Stevenson.
• The service line was also big throughout the match as Stevens held a 7-4 edge in service aces while committing just nine errors compared to 13 for the Mustangs.
• Stevenson actually had five more kills than Stevens in the opening set, but the Ducks defense picked up the slack as half of its 12 blocks came in the first stanza.
• Varseveld hit a whopping .636 in the match with eight kills, five blocks, four digs and two service aces for an extremely efficient night all-around.
• After starting the year 1-3, Stevens has now won five straight matches, four of which were in straight sets.
• With the win, the Ducks have now won each of the last nine matchups between these two teams dating back to 2003.
• While being a force at the net, Moran also dished out 36 assists and did not commit a single error on the night.

From the Sidelines (Head Coach Dan Buehring)

• "We knew Stevenson would defend us well and key in on a few things we like to do. While we were slow offensively because of that, I thought out defense showed a lot of grit and determination to get the job done. That was nice to see along with the guys bringing great energy all night."

Next Up

• Stevens puts its five-match winning streak on the line Saturday when they take on Alvernia University in Reading, Pennsylvania at 12:00 and 2:00 p.m.
• The Ducks won the matchup between these two teams last season in straight sets on the road.
• Live stats will be available on StevensDucks.com.

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