The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team heads into their most important weekend of their season as they take on SUNY Oneonta, Oswego State, and Fredonia State in SUNYAC pool play at Oneonta. The four teams are currently ranked third through sixth in the conference and with playoffs right around the corner, playoff eligibility and rankings are on the line.
 
The Hawks currently stand at 4-2 in SUNYAC play and sit in fourth place. Playoffs haven't been locked up for SUNY New Paltz yet, but they hope to sweep the weekend and move up in the rankings so they can host a first-round playoff match. Standing in their way is a surprising 5-1 Fredonia State team with Oswego State (3-3) and SUNY Oneonta (3-3) right behind them.

The Hawks are riding a hot streak heading into the pool play weekend as they have won eight of their last 10 matches. However, the recent success hasn't made the team or Meredith Dignan, junior defensive specialist, over-confident.

"We're working our best in practice to try and be as successful as we can for the rest of this season, but it just depends on how we show up this weekend," said Dignan.
 
The weekend starts off with the host at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20 as SUNY New Paltz will take on Oneonta. The Red Dragons stand at 9-15 overall, but they have some impressive results in SUNYAC play, which puts them right in the playoff mix. Oneonta took out SUNY Cortland in straight sets (25-20, 25-20, 25-18) to start off their season in conference play. Offensively the Red Dragons are led by Melissa Voyer and Meghan Keyes who have 183 and 187 kills, respectively. Jessica Fowler has distributed the ball throughout the offense tallying 815 assists on the season. The Red Dragons are currently fourth in the conference in hitting percentage so the new and improved block of the Hawks defense will look to keep their balanced offensive attack under wraps.
 
The second day of pool play will post another challenge for the Hawks as they start off the day with Oswego State at noon. The Lakers took out SUNY Oneonta earlier this season in four sets, but have struggled on the offensive end, which fits right into the Hawks style of play well. Oswego currently sits at eighth place in hitting percentage with a .138. SUNY New Paltz will look to jump all over the lackluster offense of Oswego and hopefully find their rhythm before facing off against the Blue Devils of Fredonia.
 
The Blue Devils were picked to finish the SUNYAC in fourth place this season, but due to some strong serving and defense, Fredonia State sits at 5-1 in conference play. They currently lead the SUNYAC in service aces with 222, which is 27 more than the next highest team. The high powered serving leads to teams not being able to run their offense as efficiently as they want and the defense of the Blue Devils being able to pick up the opposing teams attack. Fredonia State is second in the conference in digs per set at 17.03. Offensively, Kristen Stanek leads the way and is currently second in the conference in kills with 321, while the Hawks own Taylor Cimillo is third in the conference at 259.

"This weekend is season-defining for us," said head coach Matt Giufre. "We're in a fight and battle to even make the tournament based on where we sit right now and we're playing three teams that are in the same position we are with Fredonia being a little safer."

Dignan was a new addition to the roster this season for the Hawks and has been one of the key members of the defensive line. Dignan will be a part of the serve-receive line attempting to slow down the strong serving Blue Devils and she is confident that they have the players capable of doing it.

"All year our serve-receive has been really strong," said Dignan. "So I think we'll just have to go out there and be confident in our serve-receive and our passing."
 
The Hawk offense got off to a slow start this season, but behind the hands of senior setter Maddie Zwickl they are starting to click. Zwickl currently has 792 assists on the year and sits third all-time on the career assist leaderboard with 4,383. Defensively, the Hawks are led by senior libero Veronica Matedero, who is coming off of two stellar performances against Hunter College and Mount Holyoke where Matedero notched 26 and 29 digs, respectively. The defense has also seen a recent boost in their blocking, and although the stats don't show it, the touches that the blocks have been getting have been a vital part of their ability to counter attack the opponent.

"We have a back against the wall urgency," said Giufre. "If we don't play well enough to get in then we just have to play out the rest of the string. But, it's also a chance to play really well and win some games and end up in a good seed where anything can happen once we're in the tournament."