On Friday, August 30, the Stevens Women’s Volleyball team started their season with two games — one game against Millikin University and another against Roger Williams University. The first game of the season started with the first point coming from Ava Smithing.
A pretty solid offense from the Millikin team established an early first set lead that led to the Ducks dropping their first set of the season 19-25. Similarly in the second set, the Millikin team used their defense to shut down Stevens again 19-25.
However, in the third set, something changed. The Ducks began to fight back and create leads. Shelby Stewart, Allie Morton, and Sara Hain led the Ducks to almost taking the third set, but Millikin fought back and won the match (25-19, 25-19, 28-26).
It was a valiant effort from the Ducks, but they quickly moved on from it as the next match started against the Hawks of Roger Williams University (RWU).
Early in this game, the Ducks came out firing. Holding a 12-5 lead early, Shelby Stewart and Kathleen Riegner dominated RWU. Both of these players finished with 8 kills at the end of a first set that they took 25-19. This was an energy boost for the Ducks entering the second set.
It was a intensely close second set as RWU took a 24-19 lead, but Sara Hain, Kristen Edmiston, and the Ducks fueled a 8-1 run to take the second set. This would give the Ducks a 2-0 advantage over the Hawks.
After losing the second set, RWU pulled off a close victory in the third set.
This was a setback for Stevens, but they were able to overcome.
Fighting against 4 set points for the Hawks, the Ducks made a thrilling comeback and won the fourth and final set of the game 29-27.
Commenting on the end of the game and the win, sophomore Kathleen Riegner said, “After losing the third set, we never surrendered. We all really wanted to win, and we put all our energy into staying alive and winning that one match point.”
They did win that match point and got their first win of the season (25-19, 27-25, 22-25, 29-27).
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