Box Score

UTICA, N.Y. – More than half of the swings taken by the State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team (8-7, 2-3 UVC) ended up as kills, as the Hawks cruised past SUNYIT (7-7, 1-3 UVC), 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-14), in United Volleyball Conference (UVC) action Thursday evening at the Campus Center Gym.

The Hawks hit .457 on the match, flooring 42 kills in 81 total attempts with just five errors. New Paltz hit no worse than .360 in any of the three sets, and in its lopsided third-set victory, the visitors hit at an eye-popping .577 clip. Conversely, SUNYIT struggled to get anything going on the attack, hitting just .123 on the night.

Just about every Hawk had a stellar match offensively. Junior opposite Mike Van Tyne (Rochester, N.Y.) led the way with 10 kills and a .500 hitting percentage, while junior middle blocker Kevin Stross (Port Washington, N.Y.) compiled a .500 hitting percentage as well off of eight kills and one error in 14 total attempts. Freshman setter Misa Garo (Bronx, N.Y.) handed out a match-high 30 assists, while junior defensive specialist/libero Frank Ciccone (Long Beach, N.Y.) collected 10 digs. Stross paced the team's blocking efforts with five block assists and also fared well off the serve with three service aces.

For SUNYIT, Jeff Coon had a team-high seven kills, while Jonathan Brochu dished out 20 assists. Both Coon and Dylan Krowicki boasted six digs, while Tim Ross and Tyler Kuss combined for one block.

“We started well in the first set, but we approached that second set too easy,” head coach Radu Petrus said. “We ended up finishing strong in that third set. In general, our hitting was OK, and we were in good shape because of it.”

New Paltz returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 19, when it hosts Lancaster Bible College at 2 p.m. in the Hawk Center in a non-conference match.