The No. 2 Stevens Ducks, led by sophomore Koby Sherman who had a match-high 16 kills and senior Connor Feulner who finished with nine kills and five blocks, defeated No. 5 North Central College 3-1 in the national championship match hosted by Stevenson University.
Senior Percy Bickford had 11 kills, and classmate Louden Moran dished out 40 assists for the Ducks, who won their seventh straight to finish with a school-record 35 victories. Bickford, Sherman, and Feulner were each named to the NCAA’s All-Tournament Team. Moran took home Most Outstanding Player honors after totaling 145 assists over 13 sets across the Ducks’ four NCAA Tournament wins, while also leading the team to a 0.336 hitting percentage.
For North Central, Luke Schmidt had 10 kills to lead North Central, but the team’s efforts were not enough, as the Cardinals’ 17-match winning streak came to an end. The Ducks held North Central’s Ben Williams, who finished with 16 kills and a 0.444 hitting percentage in the semifinal sweep of top-ranked Vassar, to only six kills and a negative hitting percentage.
The Ducks took a commanding lead in the beginning of the first set, despite North Central scoring two of the match’s first three points. Sherman set down his first kill of the match to return service to the Ducks and it was only up from there. Stevens did not take its foot off the gas, claiming four straight points to extend its lead. Sherman and Bickford combined for eight kills as Stevens forced North Central into a blocking error and consecutive attack errors, giving the Ducks the opening set.
In the second set, Stevens took an early lead again on a solo block by first-year Tyler Hoke and a pair of kills by Sherman. North Central gained some ground back, reeling off four straight points to take a slim 12-11 lead. The lead was short-lived, as Stevens responded with kills from Sherman and Moran and an ace from graduate student Colin Nikc to take a 19-14 lead. After a short run by the Cardinals to knot both teams up at 23, Sherman and Lancia’s kills closed out the set to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead in the match.
North Central turned in its best performance of the match in the third set. Stevens threatened to pull away and sweep North Central, but the Cardinals orchestrated five straight points highlighted by a pair of double blocks by Jeremy Cardenas and Tyler Donovan. The Ducks were able to trim the deficit to two at 8-6, but a 7-1 run from North Central broke the set open. North Central was able to close out the third set with a kill from Mitchell Hester, making the match 2-1 in favor of the Ducks.
The final set saw the teams play the most contested action of the match, playing to 13 ties and five lead changes. The Ducks trailed by one after a three-point swing to make it 19-18 in favor of the Cardinals, but a North Central service error knotted the score. Sherman had back-to-back kills to push the Ducks closer to history. North Central responded with a kill and a block in the hopes of keeping its season alive. Following a North Central timeout, Feulner knocked a Moran pass splitting the Cardinal defense to close out the fourth set, sending the Ducks into celebration.
The Ducks are now two-time Division III champions after winning Stevens’ first-ever team national title in 2015. Stevens also won the 45th team national championship in Middle Atlantic Conference history and the first in men’s volleyball. Stevens now joins Carthage and Springfield as multi-time Division III champions. Congratulations to Men’s Volleyball on a successful season!
