HOBOKEN, N.J. – The fourth-seeded Lebanon Valley Volleyball team fought valiantly against top-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening inside Canavan Arena in a tough 3-1 defeat to the Ducks in the MAC Freedom Semifinals.
 
The Dutchmen (15-13) got off to a great start and won the first set 25-20. Stevens (26-6) evened the match up with a 25-18 win in the second sets. The hosts then took the lead with a 25-20 victory in the third set before winning the match with a 25-14 fourth set victory.
 
LVC scored the first seven points of the match with Sofia Okronley serving. Jillian Jefferys blocked the first attack on the match and then had a kill to put LVC up 2-0. A pair of attack errors sandwiched around a Mattea Penner kill increased the lead to 5-0. Okronley then had a pair of aces to force the Ducks to call a timeout. Stevens got on the board with a kill out of the timeout and slowly started to chip into the LVC lead. They were able to tie the match up at 13 and then took a lead with a service ace. The Dutchmen took back the lead on a Jefferys kill and Jasmine Sullivan ace. Stevens scored four of the next six points to take a 20-19 advantage. Penner tied the match with a kill and Okronley ended the set the same way she started in as the Dutchmen scored the next five points including two aces to win the opening set.
 
Penner scored the first point of the second set and LVC took a 2-0 lead on a block by Jefferys and Teaguen Reynolds. The Ducks scored three of the next four points to even the set up. The teams traded two-point rallies until Stevens scored five points in a row to take a 12-9 advantage. LVC countered with kills by Penner and Reynolds followed by an ace from Okronley to even the set up. The Ducks scored the next three points, and the teams traded points until it was 18-16 in favor of Stevens. SIT scored the next four points to extend the lead to 22-16. The Dutchmen fought to keep the set going but the Ducks scored three of the next five points to even the match up.
 
The Ducks won three of the first four points in the third set. LVC came right back with four consecutive points to take a 5-3 edge. Stevens tied the set up at six and then took the lead back at 8-7. Penner and Libby Lindau had back-to-back kills for LVC. The Ducks responded with five of the next six points. Reynolds and Penner recorded a block assist and then Jefferys and Reynolds had another block assist to get LVC within one. Taylor McInerney killed an overpass to even the set up at 13. The Dutchmen took the lead on a Reynolds ace. Stevens countered with four of the next five points before a Penner kill, an Abigail Souder ace, and a Reynolds block gave the Dutchmen a 20-19 lead. Stevens called a timeout and scored six consecutive points out of the break to take the set.
 
The Ducks used the momentum of going up 2-1 to get out to a 5-2 advantage in the fourth set. LVC scored the next three points to tie things up at five. SIT went on an 8-2 run over the next 10 points to build a 13-7 advantage. The Ducks were able to extend the lead to 19-10 before LVC used kills from McInerney, Lindau, and Margaret Cole to cut the deficit to 20-14. The Ducks scored the final five points of the match to take the set and advance to Saturday's final.
 
Inside the Box

• LVC won the first set against the Ducks for the fourth consecutive match.
• Penner led the squad with 11 kills and seven digs.
• Okronley had 17 assists, five service aces, and two digs.
• McInerney finished with nine kills. She finishes her career with 1,361 kills in three years at The Valley which is fifth in program history.
• Jefferys added six kills and three total blocks.
• Sullivan recorded 13 assists, two aces, and two digs.
• Souder led the team with 19 digs and an ace.
• Reynolds had another strong defensive game with six total blocks including two solo blocks.

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