WAYNE, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team's four-match win streak came to an end Thursday with a four set loss at the hands of William Paterson University in non-conference action.

The Ducks took the opening set 25-21, but dropped the next three 21-25, 19-25, and 17-25.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Stevens (16-9, 5-1) trailed early, but used a 5-0 spurt, turning an 8-7 deficit into a 12-8 lead. That cushion grew to 15-10 before the Pioneers worked the margin back to two points on three different occasions. That sequence repeated after a 21-16 Stevens lead became 21-19, then 22-20, then 23-21, before two straight kills closed out the set. The Ducks took advantage of seven Pioneers attack errors plus five Alyssa O'Neal kills & two each from Ella Boland and Sarah Bolduc.

The Ducks rallied from 5-1 down in the second set to tie at seven, then eight, only for William Paterson to re-open two more four-point cushions. Stevens closed back to a single point back four separate times, but could not tie or go in front, as the Pioneers evened the match at a set each. Stevens hit .333 in the set, tops for them on the evening, but the Pioneers hit .389, also their top single-set mark of the match. O'Neal (four), Bolduc (three, Vivian Lisboa (three), Boland (two), and Eva Tarolli (two) all had multiple kills in the frame.

William Paterson led throughout the third set, despite four service aces (from four different players) and four total blocks for the Ducks, their top marks in any set during the match; Ella Kraver had two block assists and two kills, O'Neal had three block assists and two kills.

Kills by Lisboa and Kraver put the Ducks up 2-0 in the fourth, but the Pioneers took the next five points. Two more Kraver kills pulled Stevens back to 5-4, but another 5-0 spurt made it 10-4. Two Lisboa kills and one each from O'Neal, Kraver, and Tarolli helped the Ducks come all the way back to tie at 12, but William Paterson took six of the next eight and 11 of the next 15, opening a 23-16 advantage on its way to closing out the match.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• O'Neal finished in double figures in kills for the sixth straight match after recording 10 or more just three times in her first 14 matches of the season; she also added 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the year
• Lisboa finished with nine kills on 15 swings with just one error for a match-high .533 hitting percentage, her fifth time hitting .500 or better with at least 10 swings this season
• Molly Harris finished with a 35-assist, 14-dig double-double, her fourth of the season

UP NEXT
The Ducks host Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Eastern this Saturday, November 1, for a tri-match beginning at 11:30 AM.
 
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