Men's Club Volleyball Scrimmage at TCNJ on Nov 9th
This past weekend, the Stevens Men's Club Volleyball team participated in a scrimmage against The College of New Jersey, in their home stadium in Ewing Township New Jersey. We played a close 5 sets, and ultimately were victorious winning 3-2 of the sets.
In the first set, the tempo was quickly set by freshman setter Justin Cheng and outside hitter Austin Hong, where the duo started off strong with unanswered hard and deep strikes to TCNJ's flustered back row. However, the rhythm quickly switched as TCNJ's blocks doubled up the outside hit, forming a rigid line of defense that TCNJ rode - in addition to powerful hits from their outside hitters – to tie up the game. As the set progressed, Justin Cheng made use of middle blocker and Cary Qi to draw TCNJ's blocks towards the center, leaving holes for Austin Hong and Tyler Brunquell to swing hard from the outside and right side. Middle blocker Cary Qi, a graduate student, had a consistent approach and swing to Cheng's sets with techniques that were effective throughout the first set, as well as the proceeding sets. Junior Jake Burger played libero the first game, despite his usual position as an offensive player, and kept the ball in play long enough for the Ducks to turn it around in their favor. He had numerous digs that allowed Stevens to win the first set 25 to 20.
In the second set however, things would not go as smoothly for the Ducks. In the second set, Stevens employed the same player positions, but had inexperienced rookie Miles Bird subbed in for an upperclassman at opposite hitter, in order to learn firsthand the ins and outs of the rotation system. But this put pressure on outside hitters Austin Hong and Tyler Brunquell, as well as libero Jake Burger, to cover more area in their serve receive; which would be very possible if TCNJ played as they had the first set, but in the second set, their serves were really heating up. Opposed to the serves of the first set, a flurry of high floaty balls, the second set serves were hard and fast top spinning jump serves, which simply got away from Stevens receivers. The weaker passes limited setter Justin Cheng and made the offense much more predictable to the stalwart TCNJ blockers, and the second set fell apart for the Ducks, coming to a decisive 17 to 25 loss.
The third set was similar to the second set, but much closer as Stevens picked up more and more hard serves and swings from TCNJ's strong outside hitters. Austin Hong switched positions with Jake Burger, which was the change in rhythm that the Ducks needed. Although neither player was playing particularly poorly in the position they were previously in, the fresh set of arms each brought to the offense and defense was enough to start turning the game around. Justin Cheng had more options with the passes, and was able to try more low, fast sets to freshman middle blocker Cary Qi, which started to connect towards the end of the set. However, these changes came too late, as TCNJ simply carried its momentum from its previous set all the way to the end of the third set, resulting in a Stevens loss 23 to 25, but with a promising look for change in the future.
The fourth set was a strong showing of the ducks strength and scrappiness. In this set, the passes and digs from the back row were clean and effective, giving Justin Cheng plenty of opportunity to use his middle blockers to great success. On top of that, Jake Burger and Miles Bird had fantastic blocks, which really turned the set in Stevens favor. Justin Cheng also had a fantastic block late in the set, which was a huge moment for the team. Tyler Brunquell consistently delivered powerful back row attacks throughout the whole set, and Bird had a few tips over TCNJ blocks that resulted in points for the ducks.
Burger's strong outside hits were immaculate and deliberate. It was a very long set, with Stevens coming out on top, 28 – 26 through resilient defense and consistency.
The final set of the long day was similar to the previous, where Stevens continued to pressure TCNJ's receives through an onslaught of fast middle hits, strong outside swings, and well-placed tipped balls. Tyler Brunquell racked up a series of aces under a large amount of pressure, which is a testament to his strong play throughout the day. Tyler also had a number of strong back row attacks that whittled away TCNJ's back row passing. Austin Hong's libero play was strong, as he continued to dig up hit after hit. Despite TCNJ's blocks as strong as they had been all day, their offense became more and more simplified as they tired, relying more and more on the same players, which gave the ducks the opportunity they needed to devise a stratagem to overcome them. And as TCNJ grew tired, Stevens continued to heat up, as Cheng set the ball to a wide variety of players. Finally, at the end of yet another long set, Stevens once more stood victorious, 25 – 22.
Overall, as the gateway to the rest of the season, and despite missing a good number of key players, Stevens found their footing and identity through these close games and set the powerful and bright tone for the rest of the season. There were many lessons learned from the freshman that played, and that still need to be practiced in the upcoming weeks, but at the same time everyone had very positive energy for not only the tournament at Seton Hall the next day, but the many more games to come.
Stevens won 3-2 (25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 28-26, 25-22)
Players:
Austin Hong
Cary Qi
Tyler Brunquell
Jake Burger
Daniel Jun
Justin Cheng
Miles Bird
Farhan Shaik
Nathan Molinari
