Hoboken, N.J. – The No. 4 Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team picked up a thrilling Top 10 win Thursday night in front of raucous crowd at Canavan Arena, reverse sweeping No. 9 Southern Virginia.

The two teams were neck-and-neck nearly the entire night, with the first three sets each decided by three points or fewer, plus a fifth set that featured 10 ties and three lead changes.

How It Happened
Both sides hit .400 or better in the first set, but Southern Virginia's.552 outdid Stevens' .400, as the Knights overcame seven service errors to grab the set 25-22. Stevens fell behind early, rallying to tie at every interval 11-through-14, but could not seize a lead at any point in the set.

Flipping the script from the first set, Stevens (20-4) opened the second holding a series of two and three-point advantages before Southern Virginia turned a 9-6 deficit into an 11-10 lead. Like the opening set, Stevens tied the score on multiple occasions (seven in total through the 24-24 mark), but Southern Virginia, after the Ducks fought off the Knights' first set point opportunity, closed out the set two points later, 26-24.

Down two sets, Stevens took an 11-5 lead in the third set, but Southern Virginia reeled off the longest run of the night for either side, taking the next seven points for a 12-11 lead. The teams traded points back and forth the rest of the way, as each side holding a two-point cushion, but it was the Ducks who were the beneficiaries of back-to-back errors from the Knights to take the set 25-23, pushing the match to a fourth set. Both sides hit under .150, with the Ducks scoring six points off Knights' service errors.

As the Southern Virginia offensive efficiency continued sliding (.091 attack percentage), Stevens nearly tripled its attack percentage from the third, hitting .321 in the fourth, taking a 9-8 lead they did not relinquish the rest of the way, taking the set 25-16 courtesy of extended 19-8 run, knotting the match at two sets apiece.

Stevens saved its best for last, hitting an errorless .563 in the fifth (nine kills, 16 swings), rallying from four separate deficits late, clinching the set and the match on a Knights' attack error.

Inside the Box Score

• Quinn Bozarth had a career-high 48 assists
• Julius Stiemer had a career-best 18 kills, his fourth straight match with at least 12 AND an attack percentage of .333 or better
• Ryan Schmid and Joshua Levandoske each fell just shy of double-doubles; Schmid had eight kills and a career-best 11 digs, while Levandoske had a career-high tying 15 kills to go with nine digs
• Stevens got 27 points in total off Southern Virginia service errors, the most by a Ducks' opponent since Sacred Heart had 28 on January 18, 2023.

Up Next
The Ducks host Stevenson on Saturday at 3:00 PM, before which the team will honor the team's Class of 2026.

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