HOBOKEN, N.J. - The 12th-ranked Stevenson men's volleyball team split two contests at Stevens on Saturday, defeating Hunter 25-18, 25-22, 19-25, 25-13 before falling to the No. 6-ranked Ducks, 19-25, 23-25, 21-25. All three of the Mustangs' losses this season have come against team's ranked in the AVCA Division III Coaches Top 15 Poll.
Stevenson (6-3), who is 4-2 in neutral site contests this season, had 23 total blocks in the team's 3-1 win over Hunter, holding the Hawks to a .087 hitting percentage. Junior Eddy Klepper (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) had nine total blocks, including seven block assists while junior Austin Jacoby (Sellersville, Pa./Pennridge) added four.
Jacoby led the team with 14 kills while committing just four errors in 31 attempts for a .323 hitting percentage. Sophomore Kyle Wisner (York, Pa./Central York) had 11 kills to go along with five digs and three block assists.
The Mustangs trailed 2-0 in the first set before taking a 6-3 lead and never trailing the rest of the way. In the second, they rallied from a 12-7 deficit before tying the set at 13-13 and eventually taking a 2-0 lead.
Hunter used a 4-1 run to break a 10-10 tie in the third set and never trailed again before Stevenson closed the game with a decisive fourth-set victory.
Freshman Kyle Pottieger (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson) had eight kills and a career-high five digs while junior Jon Martin (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) had six kills and 11 digs. Sophomore Adam Thatcher (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) totaled a game-high 15 digs.
Matthew Ng had 12 kills and 13 digs for the Hawks (2-6) while Braien Otsla had 10 kills, eight digs and three block assists.
The Mustangs had just 28 kills and 29 digs in the loss to Stevens (10-3) while the Ducks had 46 kills and a .292 hitting percentage to go along with 38 digs. In addition, Stevenson had just three total blocks while Stevens had nine.
Neither team served the ball well, combining for 24 service errors.
Jacoby fared well against the Ducks, totaling eight kills and a .300 hitting percentage, but the rest of the team hit just .101 with 21 kills and 14 attack errors.
Wisner had seven kills while Martin had six along with a team-high eight digs. Sophomore David Moler (York, Pa./Central York) had 25 assists and five digs.
David Evans and Ian Tyger each had 12 kills for Stevens while Chris Vaughan had 14 digs.
Stevenson returns to action next Saturday, February 23 at the Baruch Tournament where it will face Emmanuel, Rivier, Elmira and MIT, all of whom are nationally-ranked or receiving votes in this week's AVCA Division III Coaches Top 15 Poll.
