Box Score

HOBOKEN, NJ (October 7, 2009) – The Vassar women's volleyball team refused to let a sluggish start to its match against Stevens Institute of Technology become the prevailing mood of the evening, Down 2-0, the Brewers fought back with a victory in the third set, but could not force a deciding final set, and fell to the Ducks 3-1 (15-25, 13-25, 25-19, 13-25) Wednesday evening at Canavan Arena. 

With the loss, Vassar drops to 10-5 and next competes in the Seven Sisters Championships this Saturday and Sunday at Smith College. The Brewers face Elms College at 2:00 p.m. and Smith College at 4:00 p.m. Sunday's matches will be played at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Stevens, which has won 11 of its last 13 matches, improves to 15-7 and will travel to Polytechnic University for a match next Monda, October 12. 

Freshman Chloe McGuire led the Brewers with eight kills and sophomore Amy Bavosa chipped in with seven. Freshman Hilary Koenigs had 23 set assists. Both senior Jasmin Iskandar and senior Chelsea Mottern had ten digs each. 

Sarah Byrne had 20 kills and 13 digs to lead Stevens the Ducks, while classmate Maggie Majcher finished with 11 kills and 12 digs. Junior Brittany Conroy had 17 digs and junior setter Sara Budar tallied 45 assists.

After a sluggish first two sets, Vassar got untracked in the third set, turning a 9-7 deficit into a 15-10 lead on the strength of serving from freshman Christine Verdirame. The Brewers pushed ahead 19-14 following a Stevens service error. Vassar capitalized on just the right mixture of opportune kills and Stevens miscues to extend its lead to 23-16 after back-to-back opponent attack errors. McGuire and  Mottern closed out the set with back-to-back kills and a 25-19 Vassar victory. 

Stevens won the fourth and deciding set in much the same fashion as the first two – breaking away from the Brewers with points strung together in bunches. Stevens would race out to an 11-3 lead before three straight Brewers points trimmed the margin to five. The Ducks scored four unanswered points  to make it 15-6, but Vassar rallied the close the gap to seven. Leading 20-11, Stevens got a service ace and closed out the match on a 4-2 run, winning the third set, 25-13.

In the second set, Vassar jumped ahead 2-0 and had the match closely intact, trailing only 13-10 following a Stevens' attack error. With the Brewers trailing 16-12, the Ducks won five straight points, four of which came with Majcher serving. Majcher's serving prowess was briefly interrupted, but teammate Julia Reilly was able to help the Ducks close out the set with strong serving for the sets last three points, and a 25-13 victory. 

The first set was never tied and the closest it would be was 6-5. The Ducks then won eight of the next nine points to surge ahead 14-6 and built a comfortable margin from that point. The Brewers drew within 19-11 following a Stevens attack error, but the Ducks held a nine to 10 point lead to secure the 25-15 win.