Hawks Hold Off MSMC, but Falls to Stockton

NEW PALTZ – The State University of New York at New Paltz women’s volleyball team opened up day two of their Hawk Invite with a sweep of Mount Saint Mary College 25-14, 25-17, 26-24. The win brought the Hawks to 5-2 overall and a four-game win streak.

However, the win streak was brought to an end hours later by Stockton University. The Ospreys swept New Paltz 25-19, 25-20, 25-19.

The opening match, just like yesterday, started off hot for the Hawks jumping out to a 3-0 lead behind three straight aces from Nicole Fellone. The run continued for the Hawks as they led 11-4 and 19-8 easily closing out the first set.

The second set tipped in the Hawks favor after a seven-point service run by Olivia D’Antonio to put SUNY New Paltz ahead 16-5. Maddie Van Pelt contributed three consecutive kills during the run. The Knights attempted a late comeback, but the lead was too much to surmount and the Hawks took the second set 25-17.

SUNY New Paltz jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the third set and when things were looking like a clean sweep Mount Saint Mary fought back. The Knights ended up taking the lead at 22-21 but after head coach Matt Giufre timeout the Hawks regained composure and were able to fight off Mount Saint Mary to take the final set and the match.

Maddie Zwickl added 26 assists while Taylor Cimillo chipped in 9 kills. Veronica Matedero put up another impressive performance with 19 digs in the match.

“The goals we wanted to accomplish this week was to just have a better offense,” said Zwickl. “Our defense has been working their butts off, seriously, so we wanted to work on putting the ball away. This weekend I think we did a better job of that, Taylor had a really good game, so did Kerri [Neville] and Demi [Herasme] actually came back in the end too.”

The second match of the day was a tightly contested match with every set being within six points, but the Hawks were unable to overcome the Ospreys and fell for the first time this season in straight sets. The middle hitters highlighted the match for the Hawks. Herasme and Neville each had eight kills on 16 attempts leading the Hawks in hitting percentage.

The Hawks get back into action Wednesday at Stevens at 7:00 p.m.