Shippensburg, PA - Last Saturday Stevens traveled to Shippensburg PA for the conference championship to compete with the best teams around. After a full season of competition, Stevens was ultimately crowned the league champions and took home the trophy.

Throughout the long and demanding day of the tournament, Stevens had an incredibly dominant showing, only dropping 1 game throughout all 6 matches of the day.

The first set of the day was against Kutztown Maroon. After a long drive the Ducks started out shaky against the warmed up team, initially falling behind in the first game by a couple of points. However, after some motivation by the coach and some of the senior members of the team, Stevens was able to turn the momentum around. Changing service errors to service aces, adjusting blocks around the opponent, and firing up the attacks from the pins, Stevens was able to turn this first game around at a crucial moment, and win 25-23. After, by picking up where they had left off, the Ducks proceedsd to outplay their opponent in almost every facet of the game - serving, hitting, offense and defense. Stevens cleanly won the second game 25-16 and walked away with the first 2-0 of the day.

A theme through the first match that the Ducks would continue to struggle with throughout the day was keeping the teams serves in bounds. Frustrated by 'giving the opponents points' - in the next game Stevens focused on turning their habits around. And in a fast 2-0 against Penn State Berks, Stevens did exactly that, racking up almost a dozen service aces between 25-10 and 26-16 victories. The most aces came from senior libero Zack Salisbury, who in the first game stepped up to the line 12 points in a row to earn over 8 clean no touch service aces himself.

Then, the last match in pools was against Rutgers New Brunswick. In a game thoroughly enjoyed by players on both sides, the Ducks remained just as dominant against an impressive opponent. However, like the previous matches, Stevens walked away with a 2-0 victory. In this game it was the great defensive performance by libero Brian Gao and setter Justin Cheng that kept the rallies long and hard fought. And for the Ducks to close out the game,  opposite hitter Miles Bird was able to hit through the Rutgers block and close out a win for Stevens.

After advancing out of pools undefeated, Stevens went up against Bucknell in the first round of the tournament. Like flipping a switch, the Ducks proceeded to get very serious for the rest of the bracket. In the first point of the match, Senior outside hitter Alexei Nikiforov showcased his athleticism by absolutely smashing the ball off the opponents defense and into the stadium rafters above. However, not to be outdone, the rest of the team stepped up as well and brought fierce, explosive competition against a tough Bucknell team. Freshman setter Kevin Herbst showed off his technique by deftly setting each of his teammates from seemingly anywhere on the court. But for the opponent the most intimidating part of his game was the unstoppable setter dumps and momentum killing blocks. After two lightning fast games, the Ducks ended their dominant performance with an enormous block kill by senior opposite hitter Harry De Haas. Stevens won the match 25-10 and 25-16 for another 2-0 performance.

And so despite a prolonged wait between pools and bracket, Stevens came into the semifinals red hot - staring down a familiar opponent they had lost to just a few short months ago. The semifinal match was against Temple university, a team which was not only undefeated this league season but was also the decided MACVC champions multiple times in the last years. After learning from the previous meeting, both teams had clear gameplans going into the semifinals, and this match would all come down to how well they could execute it.

After initially falling behind due to missed serves and critical miscommunications, Stevens found themselves in a position similar to their loss a few months ago. However, unlike last time the Ducks did not let the momentum of the game get into their heads. In an improvised strategy, Stevens substituted senior outside hitter Tyler Brunquell in as a pinch server. Coming in cold off the bench, he stepped up to the service line and delivered exactly what the team needed - a few well placed serves to change the pace of the game. By getting the opponent out of system, the Ducks were able to capitalize with great blocks by Junior middle blocker Paul Leible and spectacular hits by senior Jake Burger. Jake proved in the Temple match how great of a player he really was, racking up seemingly innumerable kills without a single attack error. Using the change in momentum, Stevens was able rally to take the lead late into the set and close out the first game 25-22.

In the second set, Temple attempted to match Stevens by blocking each pin hitter. However, as some players quickly recognized, that opened up the way for Stevens score right over the middle with Junior middle blocker Max Metzner. On top of that, a few service aces by senior outside hitter Tim Luft and senior libero Zack Salisbury separated the teams and pushed the Ducks ahead. By adapting to their opponent and capitalizing on every opportunity, Stevens was able to overcome their opponent and finish the game 25-22.

And so after another 2-0 victory, Stevens found themselves entering the final match without dropping a game. Waiting for them in the finals was another team Stevens played previously - Rowan University. The opposing team is one with great technique and incredibly scrappy defense that would prove to be quite a challenge for Stevens.

The first set was explosive by both sides of the net. In the opening point, senior outside hitter Timothy Luft hit a great back-row attack at a fast tempo, which was perfect to fire up the rest of the team. However, as the game drew on the opponents stalwart defense stifled the Ducks attack and kept the game in their hand. And after a long and drawn out opening game, Stevens lost to Rowan 21-25.

But in the towards the end of the first game it became clear that despite their astute defense, Rowan was showing some weakness in their hitting - and as Stevens has learned throughout the season, the better team is the one that adjusts. And so in the second game, Stevens turned their focus away from trying to overpower the opponent and towards blocking and digging their attacks instead. This adjustment turned out to be a great decision, especially as the blocks by Kevin Herbst, Harry de Haas, Max Metzner, and Paul Leible led to more and more block kills. As the set progressed and the day dragged on longer the Ducks were showing no signs of slowing down, especially when the momentum changed as drastically as it had. Stevens triumphantly won the second set by a deciding margin, 25-13. Moving onto the last game of the tournament, and of the season, Stevens had a full head of steam and all the momentum in the world. And in the third set Stevens had begun to wear holes in Rowans defense as hits turned into kills. But it was the great defensive effort of every player giving their all that let them leave it all on the court and take home the win 15-8.

This club team was the first in the schools history to win the MACVC and is a testament to all of the teams hard work through the years. The team will travel to Phoenix to face off in the National tournament in a few short weeks.