The New York University men's volleyball team fell to host Stevens Institute of Technology in the semifinals of the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Championship on Saturday, April 11, in Hoboken, NJ.
Stevens (27-4), seeded #1 in the tournament and ranked #1 in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA), ended the Violets' (16-11) title hopes with a straight-set win of identical scores (25-16, 25-16, 25-16).
NYU, ranked #9 by the AVCA, had advanced to the semifinals with a first-round win over Elmira College on Friday. The Violets could not sustain their momentum against Stevens, however.
Saturday's match started off badly for NYU, as Stevens raced out to a 5-1 lead and the Violets never got closer than three points the rest of the way.
The start of the second set was even worse for NYU, as the Ducks got out to a 6-1 lead. Though the Violets did recover a bit and pull with four points on several ocassions, the outcome was the same.
In the final set, the Viiolets did take their first lead of the match on the opening point. Several ties ensued before Stevens broke a 6-6 deadlock with the next four points en route to the clinching victory.
"This was a tough loss against the #1 team in the nation," said Head Coach
Jose Pina. "They hit on all cylinders today and we had a difficult time with their serving."
NOTABLES:-
Chase Klein led the Violets with seven kills.
Nick Benson and
Colin LaPorte each had six.
-
Derrick Chiu (13) and
Patrick Merrick (10) each had double-digit assist totals for NYU.
- Benson also had a team-high eight digs. He and
Sean Leahy each had four block assists.
The 2015 campaign is now complete for NYU. The Violets posted a 5-3 UVC record during the season and enetered the tournament as the #4 seed.
"We learned a lot about our young squad," Pina concluded. "But, as always, it is tough to see the season end knowing that our seniors (
Andrew Quirk,
Arya Amirhekmat) will no longer be part of the squad."
