Hoboken, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s volleyball team split a pair of matches during their tri-match Saturday, falling in three sets to Salisbury University before knocking off William Paterson University in four sets.
The Ducks (16-6) went down to the Gulls 25-12, 25-23, 25-19, then downed the Pioneers to close out the day’s action 25-16, 26-24, 23-25, 25-5. Salisbury finished the day 19-2 on the year after knocking off William Paterson as well; the Pioneers fell to 12-9 on the year
HOW IT HAPPENED — SALISBURY
The visitors used a 5-0 run to open an early 8-3 lead. Two Vivian Lisboa kills helped close the margin back to 8-6, but the Gulls reeled off 14 of the next 18 points, seizing a 22-10 lead. Parker Adkins added a pair of kills late in the set, but Salisbury took the early lead.
Salisbury grabbed four of the first five points to open the second set, but two kills from Ella Kraver, one from Meg Dion, and a block from Elle Maggio and Lisboa flipped the script back in Stevens’ favor, 6-4. From there, the teams traded mini-spurts back and forth, Stevens holding 10-7, 13-10, 17-15, and 22-21 leads, before Salisbury closed the set with four of the final five points, grabbing a 2-0 advantage.
The back and forth play continued into and throughout the third, with a 5-2 Stevens lead becoming an 8-5 Salisbury lead, with Stevens eventually rallying to knot the set at 15 and 16-all. The Gulls answered with six of the next seven, opening a margin that did not drop below four the rest of the way to close out the match.
WILLIAM PATERSON
The teams traded big runs early on, Stevens taking an early 7-2 lead before six straight from William Paterson put them up by a single point. The Ducks came right back with seven of the proceeding eight and 12 of the proceeding 15 points, taking full advantage of seven Pioneers’ attack errors during the run. Meg Dion provided a pair of kills, Adkins provided a service ace, and two more William Paterson attack errors gave the Red and Gray the first set.
Three kills from Cleo Shannon, two from Lisboa, one from Sarah Bolduc, plus a service ace from Adkins had Stevens up 9-2 early in the second set. The Pioneers trimmed the margin to 11-8, but Shannon, Dion, and Maggio recorded a kill each as Stevens pushed the lead out to 16-9. The Pioneers responded again, eventually grabbing a 19-17 lead, but Stevens dug deep, re-taking a 22-20 lead. From there, the teams traded the next five points back and forth. William Paterson fought off one set point at 24-23, but an attack error and Dion kill put Stevens one set from the win.
William Paterson took a 10-5 lead in the third set, then held off numerous Stevens comebacks as the Ducks rallied to tie on five different occasions, the last coming at 21-all.
With the score 5-4 in the fourth, the Ducks reeled off one of the greatest runs in recent memory. Four kills from Maggio, three kills from Dion, one kill each from Molly Harris and Mallory Eder, and more than a half-dozen errors from William Paterson resulted in 18 straight points and a 23-4 lead for the Ducks; another Pioneers error and service ace from Eder wrapped the win for Stevens.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Lisboa recorded double-digit kills in each match and finished the day hitting .313.
• Bailey Axelrad had 16 digs in each match.
• Paulina Miller had 25 digs over the two matches, setting a season-high in the William Paterson win (15).
• Molly Harris had a double-double with 44 assists and 11 digs against the Pioneers, adding 29 and eight against Salisbury.
FROM THE COURT
” I thought we did a great job today of responding from a tough loss this morning and showing up for a great match this afternoon. We played hard all day and really showed grit and determination throughout the matches. I’m really proud of our team and how we came together today!”– Head Coach Macon Frey.
UP NEXT
The Ducks return to MAC Freedom play when they host DeSales Wednesday night at Canavan Arena at 7 pm.