Bridgewater, Va. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team picked up one of their strongest victories of the season Friday night, surviving a five-set battle with event host Bridgewater on the first day of the Mary Frances Heishman Invitational.
Stevens won 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 23-25, 15-9, picking up its seventh straight win and moving to 17-2 overall on the season in a clash between two teams in the Top 15 of the latest D-III NPI rankings.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Stevens came out firing in the opening set, hitting .389 with 17.
Alyssa O'Neal,
Julianne Danis,
Ella Boland and
Kileen McNeill helped the Ducks turn a 5-5 tie into an 18-11 lead. Bridgewater narrowed the gap late, but Stevens closed the set behind key swings from O'Neal and a set-clinching kill by
Eva Tarolli. Danis had four kills to lead the Ducks; Boland, O'Neal, and
Alexa Brucculeri each had three.
After an early back-and-forth battle in the second set, the Ducks used a 7-2 run to break away after a 10-10 tie. Danis and O'Neal repeatedly found the floor, while McNeill contributed at the net as Stevens hit .295 in the frame. Bridgewater remained within striking distance, but a late Danis kill and a Boland service ace secured another 25-19 win and a commanding two-set lead. O'Neal (6), Danis (5), and Boland (3) had 14 of the Ducks' 18 kills in the set.
Bridgewater led 14-4, 17-5, 19-8, and 20-11 in the third set, but the Ducks kept coming, eventually pulling to within one point on three separate occasions late before the Eagles finally took the set and pushed the match to four. O'Neal and Danis combined for nine additional kills in the frame.
The fourth set proved to be the tightest of the evening, featuring 11 ties and numerous lead changes, with neither side leading by more than three at any point. Stevens led 18-15 after consecutive kills from O'Neal, but Bridgewater responded with a 6-2 run to move in front. The Ducks fought off several swings and even tied the score at 23-23 on another O'Neal kill, but the Eagles eventually took the set and knotted the match.
Trailing 8-5 in the fifth, the Ducks found some late magic, reeling off six straight and 10 of the final 11 to close out the big win. Danis sparked the surge with a kill, immediately followed by a service ace, while O'Neal delivered the 13
th and 15
th/final points of the set. After hitting at least .195 in each of the first four sets, Bridgewater his -.143 (four kills, seven errors) in the fifth.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Ducks won their first five-set match of the season
- O'Neal finished with a career-best 23 kills, her third 20+ kill performance of the season
- Brucculeri finished with a monster 47-assist, 19-dig double-double, just two off her season-highs in both
- Danis put down a career-best 18 kills while hitting .333, her highest attack percentage in her seven matches this season recording double-digit kills
- Cadence Sturt had 21 digs, one off her season-best, to go with a season-high eight assists
UP NEXT
The Ducks wrap the Invitational with a 1:00 PM start against Randolph and a 3:00 PM start against Marymount tomorrow afternoon.
#AllRise
