Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Saratoga Springs, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team came away with a tough five-set win over Union College 25-17, 20-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-10, but then fell to the host Skidmore College in four sets 23-25, 25-15, 20-25, 23-25.
 
The Hawk offense continued to soar in the opening match against the Dutchmen as they posted a .210 hitting percentage for the match while holding their opponents to just a .160.
 
The Hawks were able to pull away in the opening set thanks to service runs from Veronica Matedero and Nicole Fellone. Up 22-11 a late push from the Dutchmen wasn't enough and the Hawks held on 25-17.
 
After trading 25-20 decisions for the next three sets SUNY New Paltz found themselves in their sixth, five-set match of the year. The experienced Hawks knew the importance of an early lead in the final set only played to 15 and took a 9-5 lead. However, three straight kills from Union College brought the set back to a one-point affair. A side-out kill form Emma Hines and a two-point serving run from Meredith Dignan gave the Hawks a 13-9 lead and two straight errors from the Dutchmen allowed SUNY New Paltz to walk away with the deciding set 15-10.
 
Following their pattern from the day before, Maddie Zwickl once again led a very balanced offense for the Hawks. Zwickl dished out 38 assists, but seven hitters had five kills or more with Kerri Neville and Maddie Van Pelt leading the way with only 10 kills each.
 
Defensively, the Hawks also saw a spread out performance as five players reach double-digit digs: Maddie Zwickl (16), Matedero (12), Maddie Van Pelt (12), Dignan (11), and Taylor Cimillo (11).
 
The win marked their third straight as well as their 13^th win in the last 16 games.
 
Unfortunately, the Thoroughbreds ended the hot streak for the Hawks and defeated SUNY New Paltz in a tight four-set contest.
 
Despite having a late 17-14, the Hawks relinquished the lead and the set 25-23. SUNY New Paltz bounced back in set two and dominated to a 25-15 win, thanks to another big serving run from Dignan early on in the set.
 
The Hawks were coming right off of a long five-set match before taking on the Thoroughbreds, so it would have been easy to not put up a fight after dropping the third set. However, the Hawks battled back and forth with Skidmore and had the set knotted up at 23-23. Unfortunately, back-to-back errors from the Hawks gave the host a 25-23 win to hand the Hawks just their fourth loss in the last 17 games.
 
Zwickl put up 46 assists on the match at an impressive rate of just under 12 assists per set, and her performance from all three matches this weekend landed her on the All-Tournament Team. She found success running multiple options, including Kerri Neville and Maddie Van Pelt who both notched 13 kills, while Emma Hines also reached double-digit kills with 11. Emily Visintini and Demi Herasme also contributed offensively with seven and six kills, respectively.
 
Matedero led the defense with 16 digs, while Dignan wasn't far behind with 12 of her own. Van Pelt recorded her second double-double of the day adding 11 digs. 

"We played two very good matches today," said head coach Matt Giufre. "I'm really proud of how we fought through and beat Union and that is great experience for us going forward. We also made some nice plays against Skidmore, but unfortunately when it was close we had a couple breakdowns on defense and broken plyas that cost us. That's still one area we need to clean up by Tuesday. It was nice to have all of our weapons going offense at different points. Emily came in against Skidmore and really scored well for us in particular. Now it's time to put all the learning into doing as we get into the post-season."

The Hawks now get ready for their home playoff match against SUNY Oneonta on Tuesday, Oct. 31 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free with a SUNY ID, children are $3 and adults are $5.