The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team finished their season hot winning 13 of their last 17 matches and head coach Matt Giufre believes the Hawks have been playing their best volleyball recently. However, he knows it's a matter of continuing that consistent play in this home playoff matchup against SUNYAC rival Oneonta.
 
"Looking at this past week from practice, the Vassar match, and this weekend we're playing our most consistent volleyball of the season," said Giufre. "It's now a matter of just building on it, even the matches this weekend against Skidmore we had some miscommunication and breakdowns and we have to eliminate that completely to make a run, but I think we're capable and we're certainly playing great volleyball."
 
The Hawks have already defeated the Red Dragons earlier this season, but it was a tightly contested four-set match 25-20, 24-26, 25-17, 28-26. New Paltz was powered by their outside hitters in that match as Taylor Cimillo and Maddie Van Pelt recorded 20 and 19 kills, respectively. Although Cimillo and Van Pelt were dominant the first time around, the Hawks know that a well-distributed offense is key to beating Oneonta the second time around.
 
The Red Dragons were led offensively by Melissa Voyer with 13 kills, but they also had four players record 7 kills or more including former Hawk Meghan Keyes.
 
"We have to focus on the things we can control during the match," said Cimillo. "We just have to go out there with confidence and play the game we know how to play."
 
SUNY Oneonta enters the playoff matchup at 14-17 overall with a 4-5 record in conference. The Red Dragons have posted impressive wins over Nazareth College as well as a five-set win over Skidmore College, who recently defeated the Hawks in four sets. Voyer leads the Red Dragons on the season with 260 kills, but Oneonta runs a fairly balanced attack with their top four hitters all over 180 kills. The offense is run through the hands of Jessica Fowler, who is currently tied for the lead in total assists in the SUNYAC with 1062.
 
SUNY New Paltz finished the regular season at 19-11 overall with a 6-3 record in SUNYAC play as well as a 6-1 record at home. Senior setter Maddie Zwickl has led the Hawk offense all season long with 1041 asssits, and is only eight assists away from becoming the new all-time assists leader for the women's volleyball program.
 
Cimillo has been the go-to option for the Hawks on the offensive end and she is currently fourth in the SUNYAC with 333 kills on the year. However, within the past week the middle hitters have really stepped up their play. Demi Herasme led the Hawks to a four-set win over the regionally top-ranked Vassar College with 13 kills and no errors on 25 attempts. It was then Kerri Neville's turn over the weekend where she hit over .210 in all three games which included 10 kills and one error against Union and 13 kills with 5 errors against Skidmore.
 
"We have to have more balance on offense this time against Oneonta," said Giufre. "We need to not be as predictable and to counter anything that they're going to try to do differently and we have to be ready for any adjustments that we think they're going to make based on the first match. I expect us to come out and play hard. I think we've had a really good week of games and practices and to build on that, but it's a brand new part three of our season, but it's definitely going to have to be a different strategy than the first time around."
 
The playoff matchup begins at 6:00 p.m. on Oct. 31 and admission is free with SUNY ID, children are $3 and adults are $5.