Stevens A 25-16 Seton Hall
Stevens A 25-15 Seton Hall

In the first set of the day, Stevens ducks played against Seton Hall's club team. During this matchup the Ducks were easily able to triumph over the opponent by racking up a ton of service aces. Alexei Nikiforov, Timothy Luft, and others had powerful top spin serves that forced the opponent out of system, which led to easy points through Stevens' blocks or attack errors from the opposing team. Furthermore, in this first set the Stevens A team had great defensive play, with great digs from liberos Kendall Niles Peretz and Zackary Salisbury. However, a few missed serves and basic miscommunications from Stevens are going to be points of emphasis for their improvement throughout the day. 

Stevens B 23-25 Montclair
Stevens B 25-15 Montclair

Stevens B team played Montclair in the next set of the day, and this went similarly to how the A team fared against Seton Hall earlier. Stevens had hard hitting services which minimized their opponents offensive capabilities. Despite Montclair's very physical appearance at the net, blocks from Jake Burger, Austin Hong, Tyler Brunquell, and Matthew Vaughan created a much easier defense for the Ducks which they turned into powerful spikes and unanswered scoring. Setter Justin Cheng also showed his prowess in this first match by maneuvering his hitters around the opposing block and deftly using backwards sets and one-hand sets to keep the opponent guessing. 

Stevens A 25-14 Montclair
Stevens A 25-21 Montclair

Immediately following the B team's performance, the A team faced off against Montclair as well. This team rallied from their last game and improved upon their weaknesses by getting more serves in and being much more communicative, especially on defense. However, it also seemed like the opponent was picking up steam as well, hitting much harder and passing much better than they did in the previous set. But middle blockers Maxwell Metzner and Yue Qi, along with opposite hitter Harry de Haas, were able to keep up and match the explosiveness of the opposing hitter enough to close off options and even get some crucial blocks. In the second game, both the teams were trading multiple power hits with one another, but it was Stevens superior defense and experience that widened the gap enough to take the lead. 

Stevens B 25-12 Seton Hall
Stevens B 25-17 Seton Hall

For the last match of the day, Stevens played against Seton Hall. The Ducks fared similarly to how the A team did earlier that morning. The B team found a decisive victory by utilizing powerful and well-placed serves, as well as retaliating with a diverse mix of hitting from anywhere on the court. The mix between the hard backrow spikes from Austin Hong and the tricky right side hits from Tyler Brunquell overwhelmed Seton Hall's defense and led to clean victories for the Stevens B team across both games.