The Hiram Terriers men’s volleyball team learned why the Stevens Institute of Technology has been to the NCAA Division III championship game for eight consecutive seasons the hard way. They were swept 25-11, 25-14 and 25-15 in the first round of the tournament last Friday in Hoboken, NJ.
“We never got our footing under us,” Coach Glen Conley said. “We were never able to get into the serve and pass that we needed to get into that gave us an opportunity to compete. We actually passed pretty well but I do not know if we served as well as we needed to keep them from getting the swings that they got and that hurt us early on.”
Although the Terriers (20-12, 8-1) tied program records for most wins in a season and the longest winning streak of nine straight matches leading into the NCAA Division III tournament, it was not enough momentum to propel them past the reigning Division III national champions. The Terriers’ second appearance in the tournament once again ended with a first round exit.
The Ducks seized control in the first set, racing ahead 10-5 and never relinquished their momentum en route to winning 25-11.
According to the third-year coach, once Stevens set up its block, Hiram could not solve it and the best hitting team of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference only recorded 16 kills in the entire match and finished with a -.114 hitting percentage due to the 25 hitting errors they accrued.
“We actually passed well but we just were not able to finish with our kills and score the normal points we would score during a match,” he noted. “We just were not able to score the points and normally we score between 16 and 18 points a set and we were not even close to that.”
After the Ducks took an early 6-3 lead in the second set, Hiram responded with a 5-0 run fueled by two aces by junior middle hitter/outside hitter Kyle Martini.
Conley said it was the first time in the match that Hiram’s offense kept the Duck attackers off balance through its serve but Stevens responded with a 5-4 scoring spree to go ahead 11-10 and continued to dominate, winning the second set by a score of 25-14.
“Sometimes you get into a rotation where they have a server who is really good and that puts our service game into a situation where we are giving up points instead of just siding them out,” Conley said. “We got stuck in a rotation and they got a good serve and we just were not able to get out of it.”
With Stevens holding a 2-0 lead, Conley acknowledged that the Ducks went in for the kill the same way Hiram did in the third set against AMCC rival Saint Vincent College on April 12 to clinch the conference banner.
“Once you get back in there and start hitting some serves, the server becomes more confident and they start to hit harder serves and it puts you even more on the defensive,” he added.
In addition to having its offense stifled, the Terriers’ defense struggled against Duck attackers and Stevens posted an electric .343 hitting rate to advance.
Although it marked the end of the season, Conley said his team did not take for granted what they had accomplished this year. Although the Terriers will graduate two seniors, they are still projected to return their top eight rotation players from this year, giving them an excellent chance to build off this season’s success.
“We were proud of what we accomplished but there was a lot of talk about we know what this is going to take and we have to get back here,” Conley said. “Determination is a good word to say what the locker room was like.
For Conley, it was a historic season for him as well as he finally got the chance to coach in an NCAA tournament match for the first time in his coaching career. It might have been the first but he is hopeful that it will not be the last time.
Conley said his squad already expects to have a target on their back next year and their ability to repeat will hinge on their offseason work.
“If we work as hard this offseason as we did last year, then we are going to be really happy with where we are but if players sit on their laurels and don’t put the work in over the summer to get better, we won’t improve so it is always a challenge to do the work,” he said.
