Volleyball Nets 4 Wins Friday Night

9/26/2014 11:00:00 PM

STEVENS Box Score  | Box Score 
The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball program notched a pair of straight-sets victories over Brooklyn College and Richard Stockton College on Friday to open up the Stevens Invitational in Canavan Arena.

Stevens is now 12-3 on the season with its eighth and ninth sweeps in 2014.
 
Stevens notched a sweep in the opener on Friday afternoon, 25-21, 25-12, 25-18, and hit .320 in the match with 11 service aces. Brooklyn swung at just a .149 clip in the match.
 
The Ducks came out slow against Brooklyn as they trailed, 3-1, in the early going of the first set. Stevens would answer back with the next three points to take a 4-3 edge after a kill from sophomore Mary Tobin.
 
Stevens would eventually go up by five points, 13-8, but the Bulldogs fought back to notch the set up at 13-13. After another deadlock at 16s, Brooklyn regained the lead on the next point for the last time in the set despite tying up the scoreboard two more times. With the scored knotted at 21-21, the Ducks closed out the set on a 4-0 run which ended on an ace from junior Catie Shelton.

Shelton finished the match with 30 assists, five digs and two aces.
 
Brooklyn began the second set on a 3-0 run, but sophomore Christina Sciarra ended the streak with a kill. After three more kills from Sciarra put the Ducks ahead for good at 7-6, freshmen Brianna Evans and Emilee Erickson posted a kill and ace, respectively, to force the Bulldogs to call a timeout at 13-7. Out of the break, the Ducks went on a 12-5 run take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Sciarra guided Stevens to a sweep with a 25-18 third set victory on six kills and four aces. She finished the contest with a match-best 12 kills and four aces and hit .292 overall.
 
The Ducks hit .379 in the third set with 16 kills and just five errors on 29 opportunities.
 
Tobin swung at a .412 clip with nine kills in 17 attempts to go along with seven digs. Shelton maneuvered the offense with 30 assists, and added five digs and two aces.
 
Erickson paced all players with 10 digs from the back row, while Evans hit .417 with six kills on 12 tries. Senior Katie Hall added five kills for Stevens, while junior Kristen Herchenroder tallied four.

Facing a formidable opponent in Stockton to cap off Friday evening, the Ducks rolled to the three-set win over the Ospreys (14-3) with 25-23, 25-15, 25-18, set victories.

The Ducks once again eclipsed the .300 hitting percentage mark, swinging at a .348 clip in the night cap. Stevens began the contest hitting .289 in the first set and then went on to hit .308 and .480 in the final two games.

Sciarra and Evans led the way offensively, posting 10 kills apiece. Sciarra hit .409 overall with four digs, while Evans finished the match with a .381 hitting percentage to go along with five digs and a pair of blocks.

Hall contributed seven kills (.385 hitting percentage) with a match-best three aces, two blocks and two digs for 11 points. Tobin wrapped up the evening with eight more kills and six digs, while junior Annemarie Thomas added four total blocks and three kills on a .429 clip.

Senior Ashley Castillo stepped in at setter and handed out a match-best 32 assists with five digs.

Defensively, freshman Sydni Horner tied a match-high with 14 digs to go along with four assists.

In a back-and-fourth first set, Stevens fell behind, 4-0, before Tobin put down three kills over the next five points to cut into the Ducks' deficit by one. Down 7-4, Evans ripped consecutive kills to continue the comeback at 7-6.

Stockton, however, answered back to with a 6-2 run to take its largest lead of the set at 13-8, only to watch Stevens with five-straight to knot things up at 13-13. After another tie at 14-14, Tobin recorded a kill and Thomas posted a solo block to give the Ducks their first lead of the set at 16-14. The Ospreys regained advantage at 18-17, but Evans factored into the next three points to put Stevens ahead for good. Sciarra ended the set with two kills in the final three points.

In the second set, Stevens jumped out to an 11-3 cushion and cruised to a 25-15 win. Stockton could only claw back to within six points on three separate occasions after burning both timeouts over the first 14 points on the set.

Stevens wrapped up the match in the third, 25-18, after six ties over the opening 30 points (15-15). After the final stalemate, Stevens outscored the Ospreys, 10-3.

HARTWICK Box Score | Box Score 
Hartwick volleyball dropped its first match to RIT 3-0 (17-25, 19-25, 14-25) but responded with a big 3-1 (14-25, 25-23, 26-24, 25-20) victory over host St. Lawrence (10-8) at the Canton Classic Friday night. The win marks the first for the Hawks over the Saints since 2006.
           
Against the Tigers, sophomore Qunicy Kinzel registered 12 assists and seven digs for the Hawks. Sophomore Alyssa Zeitler had 12 digs and senior Dana Martin added nine. Freshman Rosa Maun recorded the team-high in kills with five.
           
Against St. Lawrence, the Saints led the whole way in the opening set. SLU built an eight-point advantage, 14-6, and later got the lead to ten, 23-13. A Lexi Brown kill closed out the set for the Saints, 25-14.
           
In the second set, a Zeitler ace put the Hawks in front, 5-4, and they increased the margin to six at 16-10 following a Christine Confer kill. The Saints rallied for eight of the next 10 points to even the set at 18. Later with the score knotted at 20-20, four straight points from the Hawks, with sophomore Hannah Armstrong and junior Taylor Vonasek each contributing a kill, put the Hawks one point away from evening the match at one set all. Kinzel finished it off with a kill from Armstrong and the match was tied.
           
Hartwick (6-11) trailed for much of the third set which was evenly played throughout. The Hawks' largest deficit was four at 18-14, but four straight points, including a Vonasek ace and a kill, tied the score up. Four lead changes and seven tie scores highlighted the rest of the set. With the score 24-24, Martin killed to give the Hawks a one-point edge. A Saint attack error handed 'Wick the set and it held a 2-1 lead.
           
The fourth set was just as close as the third with 11 tie scores before either team got to 14 points. The Hawks took command with six out of seven points with Confer, Armstrong, and Kinzel notching kills to build a 20-14 lead. The Saints got as close as four points three times late in the set, but twice service aces doomed them. After their second straight miscue on a serve, 'Wick led 24-20. Vonasek then put the match away with her sixth kill of the night.
           
Junior mary Beth DeCuyke finished the match with nine kills and a hitting percentage of .389 (9-2-18). Martin also had nine kills and she added five digs.
           
Armstrong recorded six kills and tied for a match-high with 12 digs. Kinzel dished out 30 assists and had six digs.
           

ST. JOHN FISHER Box Score 
After dominating early, the St. John Fisher College volleyball team held on to win 3-2 over host Skidmore College in its opening match of the invitational on Friday evening.

The Cardinals took the first and second sets 25-24 and 25-15 before Skidmore battled back in the third set to stay in the match, winning 25-19. The Thoroughbreds then forced the fifth set by topping Fisher 25-21 in the fourth set. Fisher sealed the win with a 15-9 score in the fifth set.
 
Madison Karwas and Anna Marcy posted double-doubles in kills and digs. Karwas posted a team-high 17 kills with 14 digs while Marcy recorded 24 kills with 10 digs.
 
Brooke Meader and Erica Stickler added 24 assists apiece on offense. Paige Willson added 10 kills with four block assists.
 
Amanda Miller added defensive support with two block solos and Jordan DeMartino led in digs with 23.


ELMIRA Box Score 
The Elmira College women's volleyball team's woes continued tonight as the Soaring Eagles fell on the road to SUNY IT, 3-1.  With the loss, Elmira falls to 2-12 on the season while the Wildcats of SUNY IT improve to 9-10.
 
Elmira split the first two sets, losing the first 25-18 before winning the second by an identical score.  Unfortunately, the Wildcats would use a strong effort to close out the match, winning the final two sets, 25-18 and 25-17.
 
Ashley Heiman '16 had 14 kills tonight, setting a career high for the third-year middle hitter.  Her 14 kills came on just 26 attempts, while making just two errors, giving Heiman a gaudy .462 hitting percentage.  Paola Ortiz '16 also posted double-digit kills tonight as she recorded 10, marking just the third time this season Elmira has had two or more players with double-digit kills.
 
Elmira's Sami Hanes '16 continued to be a source of consistency for the Soaring Eagles as she logged 33 assists, eight digs, four aces, and a solo block, EC's lone block of the contest.  Defensively, Kelsey Ross '16 led Elmira with nine digs.

UTICA Box Score
The Utica College volleyball team dropped its opening game of the SUNYIT Wildcat Classic Friday evening as it fell to Alfred State College 3-1.
 
Utica jumped out to an early lead, taking the first set 25-23, however the Pioneers could not hold on as Alfred rallied to win the next three sets.  UC is now 0-2 against Alfred State on the season as it fell 3-0 on Sept. 6.  With the win, Alfred State improves to 13-2 on the year and stretches its win streak to ten games. 
 
Sophomore Brandi Blaszak led Utica with a season-high 15 kills on the evening while Laura Homer-Gunther and Michaline Rubas each had five kills.  Blaszak also picked up two solo blocks.  Junior Lora Allen had a team-best 24 assists and senior Briona Enny had seven digs.