WILKES-BARRE, PA (March 16, 2022) -- In their first home contest in McGrane Gymnasium in exactly one month, the King's College men's volleyball team fell to nationally-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology, 3-0, in the MAC contest on Wednesday night. King's falls to 11-9 overall and 1-7 in MAC play, while Stevens improves to 19-3 and 6-0 in the MAC.

A slow start doomed King's (11-9, 1-7) in the opening set as they could not find a rhythm before falling 25-7.

The second set saw the Monarchs show some fire, taking a 7-5 lead over Stevens (19-3, 6-0) before the Ducks went on a 4-1 run to regain the 9-8 advantage. The two teams traded pairs of points with King's trailing, 20-19, but Stevens was able to put the set away as they scored the final five points of the set, 25-19, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Ducks seemed to put away the final set as King's faced a 10-4 deficit early. The Monarchs battled back within 18-13 thanks to a kill from first year Rich Alvarez, but Stevens recorded five consecutive points to pull ahead and win the final set, 25-16, and hand the Monarchs the 3-0 loss in MAC play.

Junior Sam Capwell led King's with five kills on seven attempts with just one error, hitting .571, with two blocks, while sophomore Jared Piontkowski added five kills, two blocks, and three digs. Junior Joe Herman and sophomore Nick Greenawalt each added four kills in the loss, while sophomore Mike Bizzoco led the defense with four digs. The junior setter pair of Aziz Atiyeh and George Beck dished out nine assists each in the loss.

Stevens was led by Koby Sherman with 13 kills, five aces, and three blocks. Louden Moran handed out 11 assists, while Phu-Quy Ho recorded a team-high four digs. Additionally, Nathan Lancia and Zachary Evans totaled three blocks each.

As a team, the Monarchs recorded 21 kills on 19 assists, while totaling 10 digs and four team blocks.

The Monarchs are back in action at home on Saturday, hosting a MAC tri-match with the visiting Eastern University and Arcadia University starting at noon in McGrane Gymnasium.