Madison, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team continued its Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom dominance with a 25-16, 25-15, 25-12 sweep of FDU-Florham Wednesday evening.

Stevens improved to 13-4 on the season, remaining a perfect 3-0 in MAC Freedom play. FDU-Florham fell to 9-10 for the year, with a 1-2 mark in conference play.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Neither side led by more than two points early in the first set, a 5-4 FDU-Florham lead becoming an 8-6 Stevens' lead, with Meg Dion providing a pair of kills. At 8-7, four straight points, capped by a Parker Adkins service ace, opened a 12-7 lead for Stevens and forced a Devils' timeout. Out of the timeout, two kills each from Dion and Sarah Bolduc pushed the Ducks' lead to 16-10. The lead slowly grew to nine, 21-12, before two more kills from Vivian Lisboa and another from Cleo Shannon helped Stevens grab the early lead.

Two kills from Lisboa and two Devils' attack errors spurred Stevens to a 5-1 lead to open the second set. FDU trimmed the deficit to 6-4 but kills from Shannon and Bolduc and a pair of aces from Paulina Miller ignited a 5-0 spurt for a seven-point advantage and forced another Devils' timeout. Top-to-bottom production carried the team the rest of the set, with four kills from Dion, and one each from Bolduc, Lisboa, Shannon, and Elle Maggio kept FDU from closing the margin under five down the stretch.

Bolduc put down five more kills among the first nine Stevens points in the third set as the Ducks yet again grabbed a sizable early advantage. Five FDU errors plus kills from Shannon, Maggio, Kileen McNeill, and Liz Pederson quickly pushed the lead to 18-5. After the teams traded points to 22-10, kills from Mallory Eder and Alexa Brucculeri plus another Devils' error closed out the match.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Bailey Axelrad finished with 22 digs, her fourth 20+-dig performance this season and just her second in three-set affairs.
• Bolduc registered at least 10 kills for the seventh time this season.
• Stevens won their ninth straight against FDU dating back to 2012, dropping just two sets in that stretch.
• The Ducks improved to 32-1 in MAC Freedom action since joining the conference in 2019-20.
• The Ducks' defense limited FDU to 17 kills and a .029 hitting percentage, their second and third-best marks of the season, respectively.

FROM THE COURT
"I thought we played well tonight against a resilient FDU team! We served well and we sided out when we needed to. We are all excited for another conference win!" – Head Coach Macon Frey

UP NEXT
The Ducks head to Maryland this weekend for a Saturday (Oct. 12) non-conference affair with Stevenson at 1 pm.