NEW PALTZ, N.Y – The No. 4 State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team will travel to No. 11 New York University on Thursday, Feb. 5 to take on the Violets at 7 p.m.
RECORDS: The Hawks will enter the match with a record of 2-0... The Violets are 3-1 after defeating Hunter on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
SCOUTING THE HAWKS (2-0): New Paltz went undefeated in its season-opening matches at the Stevenson Tournament on Jan. 24, winning 3-1 over both Rutgers-Newark and No. 14 Stevenson… Freshman outside hitter
Anthony Bonilla was named the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Co-Rookie of the Week and Corvias Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate Rookie of the Week after tallying 26 kills over the weekend... Junior middle blocker Christopher Hussman earned American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Division-III Player of the Week honors with a .611 hitting percentage... Against Stevenson, New Paltz lost the first set but took the next three, winning the match 24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-17... Husmann recorded a match-high 17 kills with a .636 hitting percentage…. Senior setter
John Lutjen and junior setter
Christian Smith finished with 24 and 23 assists… Against Rutgers-Newark, the Hawks saw a similar situation of dropping the first set… New Paltz answered back in the next three sets defeating the Scarlet Raiders 20-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-20... Sophomore middle blocker
Steven Woessner had 13 kills, four total blocks, three digs, and a hitting percentage of .375… Hussman had a team-high .571 hitting percentage while also tallying nine kills. Smith and Lutjen contributed 35 and 25 assists, respectively, while junior libero
Kevin Nardone and junior outside hitter
Andy Fishman finished with 15 and 10 digs each… Six players finished with at least seven kills… Smith and Fishman had eight kills and Lutjen contributed eight... In all of NCAA Division III, Woessner is currently No. 9 in blocks per set… In the UVC, Husmann's hitting percentage of .611 is currently number one... Nardone is number two in digs in UVC (2.88 per set)…Gregory holds the number three spot in service aces in UVC (.50 per set), and Woessner is number three in blocks in UVC (1.25 per set).
STATISTICAL LEADERS Kills: Husmann (3.25 per set), Bonilla (3.25 per set), Woessner (3.00 per set)
Hitting Percentage: Gregory (.750), Husmann (.611),
Jake Roessler (.500)
Assists: Smith (7.25 per set), Lutjen (6.13 per set),
Mitchell Kennedy (1.00 per set)
Service Aces: Gregory (.50 per set), Woessner (.38 per set), Bonilla (.38 per set)
Digs: Nardone (2.88 per set), Fishman (2.00 per set), Smith (1.63 per set)
Blocks: Woessner (1.25 per set), Smith (.75 per set), Hussman (.50 per set)
TEAM STATISTICS: The Hawks are currently ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division III... New Paltz is also number one in NCAA Division III assists per set, assists in UVC (14.63), and kills in UVC (15.25). The Hawks are number two in UVC opponent's assists (7.88) and UVC hitting percentage (.315)…New Paltz also is number three in opponent kills in UVC (8.75), blocks in UVC (2.25), and in digs in UVC (10.75).
SCOUTING THE VIOLETS (3-1): The New York University men's volleyball team beat Hunter College 26-24, 25-9, 25-20 on Tuesday, Feb. 3… Sophomore outside hitter Chase Klein had 10 kills and four digs in just two sets, along with registering a .615 hitting percentage… Junior outside hitter Nick Benson and freshman outside hitter Andrew Zhu also had four digs… Junior opposite Colin LaPorte finished with nine kills and sophomore outside hitter Jake Getz had eight… Sophomore setter Patrick Merrick recorded a match-high 39 assists for the Violets… Benson is currently number one in the UVC in kills (4.71 per set)… Merrick leads the UVC in assists (11.36 per set).
STATISTICAL LEADERS: Kills: Benson (4.71 per set), Klein (3.76 per set), Getz (3.00 per set)
Hitting Percentage: Derrick Chiu (.500), Zhu (.400), Klein (.387)
Assists: Merrick (11.36 per set), Chiu (8.44 per set)
Service Aces: LaPorte (.39 per set), Klein (.35 per set), Phil Bueno (.33 per set)
Digs: Andrew Quirk (2.70 per set), Klein (1.53 per set), LaPorte (1.39 per set)
Blocks: Bueno (1.00 per set), Sean Leahy (.89 per set), LaPorte (.61 per set)
TEAM STATISTICS: The Violets are currently ranked No.11 in the nation by the AVCA... NYU is first in the UVC in opponent kills (8.06 per set)… The Violets are second in the UVC in assists (12.39 per set), opponents assists (7.44 per set), and kills (13.17 per set)… The Violets are third in the UVC for opponent hitting percentage (.135) and second in NCAA for assists (12.27 per set).
LAST MEETING: The Hawks defeated NYU 3-0 when these two teams last met on March 13, 2014.
WHAT'S NEXT: New Paltz will travel to Division-I opponent Sacred Heart on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m... The Violets will compete in their first UVC Crossover weekend at Elmira on Feb. 15, taking on the Soaring Eagles and Vassar.
