The Stevens women’s volleyball team had a great start to the season, with a 2-0 start in conference play and a 7-6 record overall as of October 2. Of the team’s most recent games, they have posted a conference win over FDU-Florham and two unfortunate non-conference losses at the Salisbury Tri-Match.
On September 26, the Ducks faced FDU-Florham at Canavan Arena and won the match 3-0, or in individual set scores of 25-12, 25-7, and 25-16. This continued their perfect conference record streak to 2-0 and improved their overall record to 7-4. Furthermore, since joining the MAC Freedom conference, the women’s volleyball program has not lost to FDU-Florham, and this game has added to this streak. Overall, the Ducks had a 0.437 hitting percentage against FDU-Florham’s -.069 hitting percentage, allowing them to easily take the win.
In addition, this game proved to have some very strong performances. Throughout the game, senior Elle Maggio had nine kills, five digs, and two blocks. Additionally, in the first set, senior Liz Patterson had three kills, but throughout the whole game, she totalled seven kills, two aces, and three digs. In the second set, senior Madison Sappia had three aces, which contributed to her match-total of 16 digs and five aces. In addition to these standouts, sophomore Gabbi Roberts added 13 assists and junior Parker Adkins added five kills, three aces, and three digs.
On September 30, the team traveled to Salisbury, Maryland to compete in the Salisbury Tri-Match against No.19 ranked University of Mary Washington (UMW) and Salisbury University. Unfortunately, the Ducks lost to both teams, first to UMW in five sets with scores of 21-25, 25-19, 16-25, 25-22, and 10-15 and then to Salisbury in three sets with scores of 11-25, 17-25, and 16-25. In the game against UMW, Mary Washington secured the win because of their stronger offense, as they had 15 more kills than the Ducks did. Nevertheless, senior Liz Patterson totaled an impressive team-high 11 kills and 20 digs during this match. Furthering these stats, Roberts and first-year Molly Harris each added 18 assists to help pace the match. Additionally, Sappia set a new career high in digs with 23 digs during this match.
In the match against Salisbury University, although the game ultimately ended in a loss for the team, there proved to be some very impressive performances. Senior Cleo Shannon posted a team-high nine kills. Sappia kept her momentum from the match against Mary Washington going and added 15 digs during this match as well. Additionally, throughout the game the Ducks totaled seven aces.
