Hoboken, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology's women's volleyball team's quest for a seventh straight MAC Freedom Championship began with a strong opening statement in a sweep of Delaware Valley Tuesday night.
Stevens (6-1, 1-0 MACF) picked up its sixth straight victory, during which time they've dropped only three sets, winning Tuesday 25-7, 25-16, 25-15.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Up 4-3 in the first set, Stevens reeled off nine points in a row, four of those coming off Aggies attack errors, with two more coming off kills from sophomore
Eva Tarolli. After the Aggies got a point back, the Ducks took the next six points, half coming via service aces from first-year
Cadence Sturt. Seven points later, after kills from senior
Kileen McNeill (two), junior
Ella Boland, and sophomore
Julianne Danis, the Ducks closed out the set. The Ducks hit an astonishing .400 in the frame while holding the Aggies to a -.065 clip.
Boland, Sturt, Tarolli, juniors
Ella Kraver and
Sarah Bolduc, and sophomore
Ava Stewart all had one kill early in the second set as the Ducks opened a 10-5 lead. The Aggies closed to within 11-8, but Bolduc had four kills during a 9-4 Stevens run, pushing the margin out to 20-12. Delaware Valley got two points back, but two kills from Stewart plus one each from Stewart and sophomore
Alyssa O'Neal ended any chance of a late Delaware Valley rally.
The two teams traded the first 10 points of the third set back and forth before the Ducks took five straight, four points coming from kills by O'Neal (two), sophomore
Lianna Schmieder, and first-year
Taylor Larsen. Ahead 15-8, the Aggies clawed back to 15-12, but drew no closer as two service aces from first-year
Eva Curko plus four Delaware Valley attack errors and two kills from first-year
Brooke Kinsley closed the match and sweep.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Ducks improved to 7-0 all-time against the Aggies, with sweeps in all seven matches
- Stevens hit .284 for the match and held the Aggies to a -.022 clip, the second-best marks in each metric this season
- The Ducks finished with 11 service aces and just five service errors, the +6 margin marking the best in the team's last 10 matches, dating back to a sweep of New Paltz last November 7, when they finished +10
- O'Neal was a few marks off a double-double, finishing with a team-high seven kills to go with nine digs
- Sturt had 18 digs, her fifth performance with at least 17 this season and tied her season-high with five service aces
UP NEXT
Stevens hosts Oneonta, Springfield, and William Paterson for a quad this weekend, starting Friday with a 2:00 match against Oneonta and 7:00 match against William Paterson, followed by a 1:30 match Saturday against Springfield.
#AllRise
