Ducks Outlast Eagles in Five

UNION, N.J.- The #3 Juniata men's volleyball team lost to #6 Stevens Institute of Technology, 3-2 (25-20, 21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 10-15), Friday evening inside Harwood Arena. 

Tyler Phillips had 22 kills, 13 digs, an ace,  two solo blocks, and a block assist, while Chase Robbins had 13 kills and six digs. Octavian Sperry contributed 13 kills, nine digs, and a block assist. Will Sierer had a career-high 59 assists along with nine digs and a block assist. Dante Palombo tallied seven kills, three digs, a solo block, and two block assists. 

Set one saw the Eagles pull ahead 13-9 early in the opening set and nurse the lead for the remainder of it. With the score at 21-19, kills from Palombo, Robbins, and Sperry got JC to set point. A service error continued the set for a point, before Robbins ended the set with a kill. 

The Ducks answered in the second set, using a 5-2 surge midway through to build a 12-18 lead. JC couldn't narrow the gap and wound up dropping set two 21-25. 

Set three was tight throughout, but the Eagles found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreline. A Robbins kill brought them back within two, 19-21, but they couldn't get closer the rest of the set. 

The Eagles used a late 10-3 sprint to flip the score from 13-14 to 23-17, with a Sperry kill the exclamation point on the run. The Ducks made things interesting, pulling within two at set point, 24-22, before a ball-handling error ended set four in favor of Juniata, 25-22. 

Set five was tightly contested, with Stevens taking a narrow 8-10 lead following a pair of Eagle errors. From there, the Ducks ended the match with a 5-2 run. 

Juniata returns to action tomorrow at 12:00 against Baruch.