After a convincing first-round playoff win at home against SUNY Oneonta, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball booked its 13^th consecutive trip to the SUNYAC semifinals. The Hawks hope to add their third conference title in that span, but to do so they must upend the two-time defending champions in top-seeded The College at Brockport Friday. 
 
The past two SUNYAC finals have ended the same way with the Golden Eagles defeating SUNY New Paltz in four sets, but this year the two powerhouses meet in the semifinals. Brockport finished the regular season undefeated in the SUNYAC and are looking for a three-peat, but the red-hot Hawks are poised to end their run.

"I wanna see us continue to play the way that we have the last two weeks," said SUNY New Paltz coach Matt Giufre. "We need really good offensive distribution, a lot of scorers, I want to see our energy stay high, I want to see good communication, but really what I want to see is that last time we were only a two-hitter offense and now we're a four and five hitter offense so I want to see that continue."
  The Hawks finished the second half of the season playing their best, and most consistent volleyball winning 14 of their last 18 outings. The season started off shaky on the offensive end for the, but with great defensive play from the get-go, Giufre knew he was able to dedicate more time in practice to get the offense going. This started to show in the second half of the season, which included a six-game win streak and a four-set victory over the regionally top-ranked Vassar Brewers.
 
SUNY New Paltz met Brockport in the first pool play event of the year Oct. 7 and with only a 40-minute break following its incredible fifth set comeback over SUNY Cortland, the Hawks didn't have enough left in the tank to battle the Golden Eagles, eventually falling in straight sets.
 
Brockport's offense is the only team in the SUNYAC hitting over .200 and with a percentage of .233 on the year they have solidified its selves as the top offensive team in the conference. With three players in the top 15 in kills per set, Brockport runs a balanced offense through the hands of Noelle Poloncarz.

"They have five really good hitters, and we have to maintain the positioning that we've worked on for the last couple of days," said Giufre. "We have to be able to keep the ball and dig in a position where we can score off of it. Also, we have to really make sure our blocking is in front of the ball because if we give them an open net they're going to score at will so our blockers have to make sure to get in front of the ball."
 
The Hawks defense dominated the quarterfinal match up against the Red Dragons, holding their Catskill Cup rivals to a .038 hitting percentage on the night. SUNY New Paltz will need to continue that strong defensive effort to be successful against the Golden Eagles Friday.

"Against Brockport we have to go out there confident and go out to get kills swing for swing," said Hawks sophomore middle hitter Kerri Neville. "We also have to really push to get the block closed and make sure we're following the correct hitter."
 
The other semifinal match up is the third seeded Geneseo Knights against the second seeded Fredonia Blue Devils. Fredonia swept Geneseo during the regular season, but all three sets were tightly contested with scores of 25-23, 25-22, 25-21.
 
The Knights are led by arguably the best offensive player in the conference in Grace Cergol. Cergol leads the SUNYAC in kills with 471 and kills per set with 4.32. Second place in both categories goes to Fredonia's Kristen Stanek with 420 kills and 3.65 kills per set. With the top two offensive players in the conference going head-to-head it will be a high-powered semifinal match.
 
Fredonia and Geneseo are slated for a 4:00 p.m. start time, while SUNY New Paltz will take on the host in the primetime match up at 7:00 p.m.

For live updates of that match follow @nphawks on Twitter and for additional highlights, photos and more follow @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook.