The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team is coming off the biggest win of their season heading into the last weekend of their regular season. The Hawks toppled the regionally top ranked Vassar College on Wednesday in four sets 25-13, 25-17, 22-25, 25-19.
 
"We knew Vassar was going to be great competition for us," said freshmen middle hitter Demi Herasme. "I think all of us were really looking forward to seeing a good team before our upcoming playoff game so we all went in really focused mentally and it was a really great win for us and I'm proud of us."
 
The Hawks hope to continue that momentum in their final weekend of the regular season so that they can head into their home SUNYAC playoff match against SUNY Oneonta on a hot streak.
 
The Skidmore Tournament begins on Friday night at 5:00 p.m. for SUNY New Paltz as they take on the Sage Colleges, who the Hawks already defeated earlier this season in four sets. In the opening match of the Hawk Invite early in September the Hawks took out the Gators due to great team defense as they held Sage to only a .010 hitting percentage. Veronica Matedero and Meredith Dignan led the way with 13 and 10 digs, respectively. On the offensive end Taylor Cimillo, Kerri Neville, and Maddie Van Pelt all hit double-digit kills with 16, 11, and 10, respectively.
 
The Gators stand at 8-20 overall and 2-6 in their first season with the Empire 8 conference. Sage comes into the tournament with a balanced offense posting four players over 145 kills on the year. Miranda Nethaway leads the Gator attack with 190 kills out of the middle. The Hawks held Nethaway to just four kills over four sets the first time around.
 
The tournament gets tougher from that point on as the Hawks face Union College at noon on Saturday followed by the host, Skidmore, at 2:00 p.m.
 
The Union College Dutchmen post an 11-19 record, but have recorded a 3-0 win over SUNY Oneonta and a 3-2 win over Stockton College, who swept the Hawks earlier this year. Gillian Gore is the core of the Dutchmen offense as she has tallied 400 kills off 1,313 attempts so far this season. Sage Shimamoto is closing in on 1,000 asssists for the season as she has 971 heading into the three-match weekend.
 
Skidmore College will be the toughest test of the weekend as the Thoroughbreds stand 15-9 overall and 4-3 in the Liberty League. Skidmore has a triple threat offense behind Caite Canfield, Katy Ehnstrom, and Bailey Hutchins who have notched 271, 247, and 231 kills, respectively. Lauren Wolters dishes out a solid 9.71 assists per set while Allie Dillon runs the back line with 3.38 digs per set.
 
The Hawks are hitting their stride in the second half of the season as in the last 14 matches they are an impressive 11-3. Their conference record of 6-3 sealed a home playoff matchup in the first round against the fifth seeded Oneonta Red Dragons. Taylor Cimillo is currently third in the SUNYAC with 319 kills, and is also one of the top defensive players for the Hawks with 219 digs. Veronica Matedero leads the way with 431 digs at 4.27 digs per set. Maddie Zwickl has dished out 926 assists so far this season and is currently 123 assists away from breaking the all-time record for program assists.

"This weekend we're just looking to build on the consistency of the Vassar match," said head coach Matt Giufre. "I thought the start of the match to the end of the match we played composed, energitic volleyball and you know, one time is a fluke, but if we can repeat that then it's who our team has become and that's really what I'm looking for."
 
The SUNYAC playoff matchup is set for Tuesday, Oct 31 at 6:00 p.m. in the Hawk Center.