OWINGS MILLS, Md. (Men's Volleyball) – For the second time in school history, the Stevens Institute of Technology men's volleyball team stands atop Division III.

The Ducks become the 45th MAC Team to win a Division III Title; 165th including individual titles. (Archive)

Sophomore Koby Sherman had a match-high 16 kills and senior Connor Feulner finished with nine kills and five blocks as the second-ranked Ducks defeated No. 5 North Central College 3-1 (25-15, 26-24, 15-25, 25-22) Sunday afternoon in the national championship match hosted by Stevenson University at Owings Mills Gymnasium. 

The Ducks are now two-time Division III champions after winning Stevens' first-ever team national title in 2015. Stevens also won the 45th team national championship in Middle Atlantic Conference history and the first in men's volleyball. Stevens now joins Carthage and Springfield as multi-time DIII champions. 

Senior Percy Bickford had 11 kills and classmate Louden Moran dished out 40 assists for the Ducks, who won their seventh straight to finish with a school-record 35 victories against just three defeats, with only two coming against Division III competition. 

Bickford, Sherman and Feulner were each named to the NCAA's All-Tournament Team. Moran took home Most Outstanding Player honors after totaling 145 assists over 13 sets (11.15 per set average) across the Ducks' four NCAA Tournament wins, while also guiding the team to a .336 hitting percentage. The Joliet, Illinois native also recorded a match- and career-high 15 digs in the championship match for his eighth career double-double.
 
Luke Schmidt had 10 kills to lead North Central, who saw its 17-match winning streak come to an end in falling to 25-4. The Ducks held North Central's Ben Williams, who finished with 16 kills and an impressive .444 hitting percentage in the Cardinals' semifinal sweep of top-ranked Vassar, to a mere six kills and a negative hitting percentage. Stevens has won both all-time meetings with North Central. 

The Ducks wasted little time taking control of the opening set. After North Central scored two of the match's first three points, Sherman set down his first kill of the match to return service to the Ducks. With Bickford on the line, the Ducks reeled off four straight points to jump in front for good. Two of the four points in the sequence came on blocking errors, something the Cardinals struggled with throughout the match, finishing with 17 blocking miscues after having just five in their semifinal victory Friday. 

Sherman and Bickford combined for eight kills in the opening set as Stevens hit .308, while forcing North Central into an equal number (9) of kills and errors. A 5-1 run broke the set open and a subsequent 4-0 run helped the Ducks cross the important 20-point plateau. Another blocking error returned service to Stevens late in the frame and consecutive attack errors gave the Ducks the opening set.

The second set saw Stevens again take an early lead on a solo block by first-year Tyler Hoke and a pair of Sherman kills. They would remain in front until the middle of the set, using a highly efficient offense that produced just three attacks errors (a match-high .483 hitting percentage) and forced the Cardinals to often play out of system. North Central reeled off four straight points to take a slim 12-11 lead, only to see Stevens respond with kills from Sherman and senior Louden Moran and an ace from graduate student Colin Nikc to take a 19-14 lead. North Central wouldn't go away quietly, putting together a 4-0 run to knot the teams at 23. The teams traded points to again even the set at 24 but kills from Sherman and Lancia closed out the frame and gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead in the match. Lancia's set-clinching kill came off a nifty back set from Nikc.

Statistically, North Central turned in its best performance of the match in the third set, staving off elimination with 10 kills. Bickford set down a Moran pass to put the Ducks on the board and a double block from Sherman and Hoke pushed the lead to two. With Stevens threating to pull away, North Central strung together five straight points, punctuated by a pair of double blocks by Jeremy Cardenas and Tyler Donovan. The Ducks trimmed the deficit to two at 8-6, but a 7-1 run from North Central broke the set open. Head coach Dan Buehring turned to his bench to try and claw back into the set, with senior Alex Franke getting thrust into the match and producing three kills on three swings and a block, however North Central closed out the set with a kill from Mitchell Hester.

The final set saw the teams play the most contested action of the day, playing to 13 ties and five lead changes. A Sherman attack error gave North Central the first point of the set but kills from Bickford and first-year Phillip Bone put the Ducks in front 3-2. 

Play was halted in the early stages of the fourth set due to an issue with the lighting in the venue. The delay prompted dancing on the sidelines from both teams and a spirited handstand race. Once play resumed, neither side was able to string together more than two points at a time until North Central forced the Ducks into a pair of errors as part of a three-point swing to take a 19-18 lead. 

With the Ducks trailing by one, a North Central service error knotted the score. Sherman had back-to-back kills to push the Ducks closer to history. North Central responded with a kill from Jared Moser and a block by Hester and Williams to keep its season alive. However, it was Sherman knocking down another Moran pass to put Stevens back in front and an attack error brought Stevens to championship point. Following a North Central timeout, Feulner knocked a Moran pass right into the middle of the Cardinal defense to close out the four-set victory, sending the Ducks into a celebration.

Inside the Numbers

• Moran turned in his ninth match with 40 or more assists.
• For the second straight match, Nikc had the Ducks' only ace.  
• Bickford had 24 receptions without an error.
• Nine different players had at least one kill and seven had at least one block.
• Men's Volleyball joins alumnae Amy Regan, Laura Barito, Brittany Geyer and Gladys Njoku as Stevens' multi-time national champions.