Stevens Wins Empire 8 Title with 3-0 Sweep of Nazareth
Rob Kulish
Watch! Championship Point
HOBOKEN, N.J. (November 8, 2014) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team is the champion of the Empire 8 Conference. The Ducks (31-6) swept Nazareth College (26-10) for their fourth E8 title and first since 2009 in front of a raucous crowd inside the Canavan Arena.
Freshman
Brianna Evans was named the tournament MVP as the Ducks will now await their NCAA Tournament draw. Stevens will find out when and where it will play on Monday, November 10 at 11 a.m. Fans can visit
www.ncaa.com to tune in live.
The Ducks needed 'extra-time' to earn wins in the first two see-saw sets, taking the first 27-25 and the second 26-24. They rolled to a win in the third, 25-16.
Evans finished the match with a team-high 10 kills and 12 digs for her second double-double of the tournament. Sophomore
Mary Tobin had seven kills and 12 digs, while sophomore
Christina Sciarra had eight kills and a pair of service aces. Senior
Ashley Castillo tallied 28 assists, three kills and seven digs, and senior
Katie Hall pocketed five kills and three service aces. Freshman
Sydni Horner had an ace and 14 digs, with junior
Catie Shelton getting six digs. Junior
Annemarie Thomas was also solid for the Ducks with three kills, one block solo and one block assist.
Kassandra Buseck led the Golden Flyers with a match-high 17 kills with five errors on 36 attempts. Jennifer Hicks and Olivia Harrigan had eight kills and seven kills, respectively. Maria Allocco, the Empire 8 Player of the Year, was held to just six kills with five errors on 27 attempts. Sophomore
Madi Wickens had 28 assists while classmate
Maureen Thayer finished with a team-high 16 digs.
First Set
The first stanza was back-and-forth with major swings. The Ducks took an early 10-6 lead and eventually went on top 12-8, before Nazareth made a nice run to tie the set at 14-all. Three-straight from the Ducks made it 17-14, but Nazareth answered with a major surge, taking a 24-19 lead to all but lock up the first set and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
That final point proved to be too tough for the Golden Flyers to get as Stevens stormed back with kills from Evans and several Nazareth errors to tie the score at 24. Nazareth would again get set-point at 25-24 but the Ducks ran off three-straight points to go on top 1-0 and seize all the momentum in the arena. A pair of Evans kills followed by an attacking error by Naz lifted the Ducks to the set win.
Second Set
The second set mirrored the first with the top-seeded hosts jumping out to what looked to be an insurmountable 8-2 lead. The lead moved to seven at 14-7 before Naz came back with a 7-2 spurt to get within two at 16-14.
Stevens again would go on a run to take a 19-14 margin and eventually had set-point at 24-19 but Nazareth rallied, notching five-straight tallies to tie the set at 24-all. An attack error gave the Ducks set-point again, before a kill from Castillo gave the Ducks a huge 2-0 lead.
Third Set
The third set was much different than the first two as the Ducks grabbed an 8-4 stranglehold and never let go. Nazareth closed within two points on one occasion but that would be as close the Golden Flyers would get.
From 8-6, the Ducks doubled-up Naz to take a 16-10 lead, eventually cruising to the 25-16 match-clinching win. Stevens recorded the final six points of the match, getting a kill from Hall and the clincher from Sciarra on a perfect set by Castillo.
Stevens won Empire 8 Championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and reached the title match in DeHaven's second season as head coach before winning the title Saturday.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Stevens: Brianna Evans (MVP), Mary Tobin and Sydni Horner
Nazareth: Maria Allocco and Kassandra Buseck
Houghton: Hattie Burgher
Ithaca: Rylie Bean