Box Score Owings Mills, Md. – Freshman Tim Flanagan sent home 11 kills as the Stevenson men's volleyball team (9-6, 1-0 MAC) picked up a 3-0 victory over Widener (3-6, 0-3 MAC) Saturday afternoon at Owings Mills Gymnasium. Set scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-20.
Stevenson nearly led the first set wire-to-wire with only one tie score in the frame at the 2-2 mark. The first set was a see-saw battle with Widener not allowing the Mustangs out of eyesight. However, Stevenson carved a lead at 9-13 on a block from Elliot De La Torre and Tim Flanagan. Tanner Stauffer also earned a block to set the pace at 15-19.
The Mustangs chipped away an advantage over the next several points, stringing two points together two separate times but never put a large run together throughout the set. Flanagan put down a kill to take the opening frame for the Mustangs with a score of 18-25.
Stevenson would take a lead in the second set and never relinquished the advantage, sprinting to a 1-9 lead on a seven-point streak aided by kills from Flanagan, Aidan O'Brien and Aleks Melbardis. Tanner Stauffer and Brian Farrell paired up to block the Widener attack to open the lead to 4-16.
The Pride gave away some points on attack errors to give Stevenson an 11-22 lead before attempting to surge back with a three-point rally but was thwarted by a service error. Stevenson took the second set with a 17-25 score on a kill from Farrell.
The third set was the most tightly contested of the three frames, with seven tie scores and three lead changes. Stevenson fell to its first deficit of the match at the 8-7 mark of the third set.
The Mustangs fell behind 15-12 before launching a four-point streak, which included three kills from Flanagan and another from O'Brien, to regain the lead at 15-16. A service error halted the momentum briefly, tying the set at 16-16, marking the last tie score for the match.
The Mustangs regained a slight advantage at 16-18 and allowed Widener to string more than two points together. Stevenson closed out the match on a 5-2 run, taking the final fram with a set score of 20-25.
Numers and Notes
- Tim Flanagan's 11 kills is the second-highest of his career (13 at Dominican (IL)) and fifth time the first year has recorded double-digit kills.
- Tanner Stauffer lead the match with 11 digs.
- Justin Novoa tallied 32 assists, the second-highest of his career (33 vs Mount Union).
What's Next
- The Mustangs remain in MAC conference play, traveling to Alvernia on Wednesday, March 2nd for a 7pm bout.
