Box Score New Paltz, NY – A record-breaking performance, a raucous home crowd, and a win. That's just about everything the State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team could ask for on their home playoff match against SUNY Oneonta. The Hawks defended their home court and took out the Red Dragons in four sets 25-14, 25-16, 26-28, 25-13.
 
Senior setter Maddie Zwickl entered the match eight assists away from breaking Marissa King's all-time record and in the opening set up 15-11 she back set freshman right side hitter Emma Hines who powered the ball through the block to give Zwickl her 4,640^th assist, which made her the new all-time assists leader for the women's volleyball program.
 
"It's honestly pretty cool," said Zwickl. "Getting to a point where the program's growing and it's not necessarily me, but it's us as a program growing, getting bigger and better. Marissa King is a great volleyball player and she set such a high standard and a high record for all of us to look at and say, 'wow maybe we can do this one day.' Four years later it's kind of cool to see how I've grown and how the team has grown and I couldn't have got there without any of my hitters so kudos to them really."
 
"Maddie came in here as a freshman and had the opportunity to play right away and did a really, really good job," said Giufre. "But, the more impressive thing is that every year she's taken the opportunity to grow her game in some aspect."
 
The Hawks came out firing and jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a double block from Demi Herasme and Zwickl. The lead kept growing for SUNY New Paltz as well as the momentum and they took a 21-12 lead off an overpass kill from Kerri Neville. The Red Dragons called timeout to slow down the high-powered Hawk offense, but that's when the SUNY New Paltz men's soccer team entered the gym decked out in their Halloween costumes. The energy in the gym sky-rocketed and the Hawks dominated the end of the first set and walked away with a 25-14 win.
 
The start of the second set meant the momentum could swing either way, and at 1-1 off a middle attack from the Red Dragons Taylor Cimillo dove into the Hawk bench to save a ball and later on that same point Neville smacked down a one ball out of the middle to keep the energy on the Hawks side. However, after a kill from Sara Feldman the Red Dragons could begin to feel like they were right in the match at 4-3. That's when the men's swim team arrived in their speedos. The energy in the Hawk Center rose once again fueled by the swim team's presence and the Hawks rallied off the next three points to regain control at 7-3. However, back-to-back blocks from Oneonta brought them right back into it and with the score at 6-7 it was anybody's match. With the score knotted up at 12-12 freshmen Caleigh Carr stepped to the serving line and put the Red Dragons in a tough situations and after a Maddie Van Pelt kill, Carr forced three straight errors from Oneonta. It was all New Paltz from that point on and Zwickl sealed the 2-0 lead for the Hawks with an ace.
 
"I thought that the crowd was really uplifting," said Giufre. "It's nice to see that level of support not only from the department certainly, but from the campus for a home playoff contest. I think it was a lot of fun for them to play in front of that. I joked with the team before the match that in my 20 years in the SUNYAC a team has never scored a point for or against us, but they can certainly will you and excite you to go out and play at a high level."
 
"It was good to see that the teams on our campus are supporting us fully, and that when they can be there they will be there," said Zwickl. "It meant a lot to me."
 
Although everything seemed to be pointing towards a straight-set win for the Hawks, the Red Dragons weren't ready to end their season yet. SUNY New Paltz took a 6-3 lead early on in the third set, but that's when Oneonta buckled down and ran eight straight points thanks to a couple kills from both Victoria Moulder and Melissa Voyer. Down 11-6 Zwickl went back to her freshman on the right side and Hines ended the run to get the Hawks back into the set.
 
Slowly climbing their way back into the match, Nicole Fellone finally tied up the score at 19-19 with an ace and then hit another difficult serve that led to an overpass kill for Taylor Cimillo. At 22-22 Zwickl decided to take matters into her own hands and executed a perfect dump off the second ball to give the Hawks a one-point advantage.
 
"We've been working on [dumping] in practice," said Zwickl. "One was unnecessary, but a few of them were supposed to happen so it was good to see those hit the floor, side out, and get the ball."
 
Following an error from Meghan Keyes the Hawks found themselves with two match points up 24-22, but a Feldman kill and a Delaney Dower ace quickly erased them. Cimillo answered right back tooling the Red Dragons block, but another Feldman kill squashed the Hawks third match point. It was the last match point New Paltz would see in the third set and a kill from Voyer out of the middle put the Red Dragons on the scoreboard down two sets to one.

"Our sport is very special in that every point is value, you never lose points you're just always gaining," said Oneonta head coach Ashley Coyle. "We've talked about fighting for one, keep moving forward and yes we're down, but imagine what can happen when we string those points together and they really just bought in."
 
In a match full of momentum swings, it was vital for the Hawks to get a quick start in the fourth set and kill the energy built up on the other side of the net, and they did just that. A 3-0 serving run from Meredith Dignan started it off and senior libero Veronica Matedero followed suit, rattling off seven straight serves to put the Hawks up 13-2 early in the fourth set. With an 18-4 lead the Red Dragons pushed back and made a seven-point run of their own to make it 18-11, but it was too little too late for Oneonta and a double block from Cimillo and Neville clinched the win and a spot in the semifinals for the Hawks.
 
"We kind of just knew that this is it and that we have to get it here," said Cimillo. "With that mindset going into the fourth set it just turned everything around completely."

The Hawk defense held the Red Dragon offense to only a .038 hitting percentage while the Hawks were able to post a solid .220. Matedero led the defense with 12 digs, followed by Zwickl and Cimillo with 10 each. Zwickl notched a double-double on the day dishing out 36 assists to go along with her defensive effort. Cimillo led the offense with 14 kills to give herself a double-double as well. Van Pelt hit .219 on the outside with 11 kills, while Neville gave the Hawks a boost out of the middle hitting .357 with 6 kills.  

The Hawks move on the face No. 1 seed The College at Brockport in the Golden Eagles gym on Friday.
 
"They're a really well-balanced team and we're going to have to be a well-balanced team as well," said Giufre. "I think defensively we have to maintain the pursuit and the urgency we played with tonight."

Check out the full press conferences from both teams below!