Stevens tops Dominican in five sets to reach NCAA DIII Championship
Charles O'Brien
KENOSHA, Wis. (April 27, 2018) – Junior Dylan DeBoer set a career-high with 19 kills leading the Stevens Institute of Technology Men's Volleyball team to a thrilling, five-set, come-from-behind victory over Dominican University (32-34, 25-22, 26-24, 25-23, 15-9) Friday evening in the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball semifinals at Tarble Arena on the campus of Carthage College.
Graduate student
Gabe Shankweiler added 17 kills and an ace and senior Thomas Burrell collected 11 kills and a career-high 11 blocks for his first career double-double as Stevens won its 10th straight match to improve to 27-4 on the year. Junior Cooper Diamond posted a career-high 11 kills, including the match-clinching point that completed the comeback. The two middle blockers combined for 22 kills on 33 attacks with just two errors (0.606 hitting percentage) and 14 blocks.
"What a rollercoaster match," said assistant coach
Amable Martinez. "Dominican gave us everything we could handle, but we kept it together and were able to pull out the victory."
Luke Spicer collected a match-high 22 kills on 54 swings to lead Dominican, who was making its first-ever Final Four appearance. Spicer appeared to chip his tooth midway through the fourth set, but only missed a handful of plays. Jack McGuire dished out 56 assists for the Stars, who fell to 26-8. Stevens has won each of the last two meetings between the programs. The Ducks have ended Dominican's season in consecutive years.
Sophomore Grant Burden led the team with 37 assists and freshman outside hitter Ryan Byrne provided a spark off the bench with seven kills and seven digs. The five-set victory sets up a rematch of the 2015 national championship after No. 1 Springfield College topped No. 5 Vassar College in straight sets earlier in the evening. Springfield will playing in its seventh straight national championship. The Ducks defeated the Pride, 3-0, in the 2015 national championship, which was played in Canavan Arena.
"Tonight's match is a testament to the depth of our team and to our leadership," Martinez offered. "Tom and Cooper had amazing games in the middle and both Gabe and Dylan played great defense, while leading us in kills. It was a full team effort tonight. Every player that came into the match played a big role in the win, especially Grant Burden."
In a back-and-forth match that saw the largest margin of victory come in the final set, the teams combined for 33 blocks, nine aces, 95 digs and 235 total points in a match that took well over two hours to complete. The Ducks held a 0.258-0.187 edge in attack percentage and came out ahead in kills (70-60). The Stars held a slim advantage in aces and blocks. Stevens hit a match-high 0.375 (12-3-24) in the final set. Liberos Joshua Hinton and
Niko Lambert combined for 10 digs and three assists. DeBoer led the team with nine digs. Ethan Klosak and David DeMarco each had 11 to lead the Stars.
The opening set saw Stevens record the first point of the match on a DeBoer kill. Setting an early trend for the match, neither team was able to hold more than a four-point lead in the opening set. Playing before a pro-Dominican crowd, the teams combined for 21 ties and 28 errors in the set, with neither team able to sustain any offensive consistency. A four-point run by Stevens, highlighted by a Shankweiler kill and a Jacob Patterson ace was the longest run by either team in the frame. DeBoer and Shankweiler totaled 11 kills in the marathon stanza, however, Dominican fought off eight set points and rallied to score the final three points of the set to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Diamond opened the second-set scoring with an emphatic conversion of a Patterson set. Dominican's first four-point run of the match gave the Stars an early 6-4 advantage and control of the frame. As was the case in the opening set, the teams combined for 14 ties, but Stevens was able to string together a pair of three-point runs that turned a two-point deficit into a one-point advantage on a double block by DeBoer and Burrell. After a service error forced another tie, DeBoer slammed down a Patterson set to return the serve to Stevens. The third-ranked Ducks didn't let the opportunity slip away, scoring the final three points to knot the match at one. Burrell partnered with Burden to reject a Klosak set to close out the scoring. The Ducks registered three blocks in the set.
For the first time in the match, it was Dominican that pulled ahead early in the third set, taking advantage of a pair of Stevens errors to take an early 4-1 lead. The longest run of the match by either team saw the Stars string together six consecutive points to take a commanding 14-6 lead. It was Dominican's play at the the net that disrupted the Stevens offense, as the Stars recorded three attacks in a four-point stretch to keep the Ducks at arm's length. Stevens used its own block to claw back into the match with three straight blocks, including an emphatic solo block on the outside by Shankweiler pulled the Ducks within two at 17-15, forcing a Dominican timeout. A tandem block by DeBoer and Burrell pulled Stevens within one and a Burrell solo rejection capped a rally, which saw Stevens pull ahead for the first time in the set to take a 24-23 lead. A pesky Dominican squad reclaimed its first-set magic, staving off a set point for the ninth time in the match on a Spicer kill. Jake Sidner converted a McGuire feed and Adam Eboli served up an ace inside the near-sideline to give the Stars the set and a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set produced another 12 ties. With its season on the line and trailing 17-15, Stevens received a spark from Burden, who keyed the Stevens offense in multiple ways. Burden began the key sequence, teaming with Burrell to block a Klosak attack and then the Palos Park, Illinois native recorded a solo block of Klosak on the next point to tie the set. Burden forced another tie with his only kill of the match and Byrne threw down a Burden set to give Stevens a one-point edge. Diamond slammed down an over ball to push the lead to two, forcing a timeout. The Stars would close to within one, but Burrell pushed down a Burden quick set to reach set point and a Nick Timreck service error forced the deciding fifth set.
Playing in a fifth set for just the third time this season, the Ducks found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-0 margin after a Jake Sidner kill. Shankweiler recorded the first point of the fifth and the Ducks scored four of the next five points to take a 5-3 lead. Although the teams would tie twice in the ensuing action, Shankweiler recorded two kills surrounding a DeBoer kill to give Stevens a 9-6 lead after the court switch. Putting the team on his shoulders in the final frame, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native recorded four kills and a block in the final stanza and recorded a fantastic individual play, ranging into press row to save an errant pass that lead to a Stevens point. DeBoer pinned down a Burden kill to reach match point and Diamond closed out the match with a perfectly-placed ball to cap the Stevens comeback victory.
Burrell's 11-block effort marked the highest five-set total in Division III this season and was the most in any postseason contest to date.
Up Next: Stevens takes on No. 1 Springfield College in the national championship for the second time in four seasons Saturday evening. The match gets underway at 7 p.m. (EST).