Hempstead, NY - Stevens Men's Club Volleyball team traveled to Hofstra University this past weekend, where they competed against Hofstra's teams as well as Stony Brook University. Stevens performed very well, winning nearly every game by a wide margin.

In the first set of the day, Stevens defeated Hofstra's Coed team 25-10 and 25-13. Thanks to Senior Jake Burger and Freshman Kevin Herbst each racking up double digit aces across the sets, the Ducks had no trouble at all defeating the opposition. Their defense kept multiple plays alive, and their powerful attacks proved to be too much for Hofstra, with outside hitters Timothy Luft and Alexei Nikiforov getting many kills.

In the next set of the meet, Stevens defeated Hofstra's Men's B team 25-14 and 25-13. Similar to their previous matches, Stevens serving capabilities led to numerous service aces and propelled them to an early lead that they held throughout both sets. Freshman libero Rhys Robichaud had a ton of digs against Hofstra's strong middle attacks, which the Ducks converted to many kills for their own middle blockers Maxwell Metzner and Yue Qi. In this second set, the other hitters Tyler Brunquell and Miles Bird each racked up a number of kills through powerful swings and tooling Hofstra's block.

For the third set of the round robin meet, Stevens Ducks played against Hofstra's women's team. Although originally a men's tournament, the women's team wanted to get competitive sets even if it was against a men's team. Stevens beat them 25-17 in the first set and 25-11 in the second set. Hofstra's women's team proved to be a challenge for the Ducks because they were able to pass a lot of their hits and extend their rallies. Unfortunately, they had trouble blocking Stevens hitters which the Ducks took advantage of by hitting hard spikes every chance they got. Timothy Luft, Alexei Nikiforov, and Tyler Brunquell all had great hits on the pins and in the back row.

The next set for Stevens was against Stony Brook University, who were very competitive. Stevens won the first set very easily, 25-12, but the second set was more competitive, although Stevens won the second set 25-19. In the first set, Stony Brook were not able to pass the powerful top spin serves that Stevens had, which quickly grew out of hand for them. Unfortunately, being unable to pass the serves led to a deteriorating mentality and a decisive Ducks win in the first set. But Stony Brook was able to turn it around in the second set by utilizing fast, powerful attacks by their middle blocker. It hardly took long for Stevens to adapt however, and the great passing and defensive abilities led to Stevens defeating Stony Brook again in the second set.

For the last set of the day, Stevens played against Hofstra's men's A team. This was a very competitive set, although there was only 1 game played due to time constraints. Stevens beat Hofstra 25-20. In this last set, the Ducks were able to use their powerful serves and hits to manipulate the opponent's block and system. In this last set particularly, Maxwell Metzner and Kevin Herbst had very impressive blocks that completely stuffed the opponents spiking attempts.

Ultimately, the Stevens men's club volleyball team had a very successful outing and proved to be a dominant force against many competitive teams. The Ducks will have their last competition of the semester on December 4th at Seton Hall, where they hope to improve upon their performance at Hofstra.