The State University of New York at New Paltz men's soccer team opens up conference play Friday and Saturday on the road against SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland.
 
The Hawks are coming off a strong performance against visiting King's College, defeating the Monarchs, 3-1. It was a tremendous bounce-back effort from their outing against Vassar College, where SUNY New Paltz conceded three second-half goals to take just its third defeat of the year. But with seven games of non-conference play under its belts, the Hawks have gotten their footing to potentially have a successful first State University of New York at New Paltz weekend.
 
"Going into this weekend we've had a lot of preparation," said SUNY New Paltz senior midfielder Ben Zilka. "We put all of our non-conference games before we started conference play, so from here on out every game we play is in conference. We are really prepared, really excited and anxious to get out there and do the best we can."
 
Last season the Hawks walked away from their Oswego-Cortland weekend, 1-1. They handily defeated the Lakers 3-0, but fell to the Red Dragons in a tight 1-0 decision on their home turf. They are determined to re-pay the favor as they travel to Cortland this weekend, hoping to flip the result.
 
The Red Dragons enter the contest 6-1, with their only loss coming in overtime against University of Scranton. SUNY Cortland's defense has been stingy, giving up less than a goal per game and recording four shut outs thus far. Offensively they are led by Jake Keller (12 points) and Migell Ormsby (eight) who have combined for nine of the team's 15 goals.
 
"Losing to Cortland last year has really gutted us," Zilka said. "There was a late goal in the game, [but] we have a different team this year. We're stronger and I feel like we can go there and get a result."
 
 SUNY Oswego has had a good start to its season as well, losing just once through six games. Its only defeat was at home against St. Lawrence, 2-0. The Lakers have piled on the offense thus far, totaling 28 goals and averaging four goals per game. Their offensive leaders include Hassan Musa (18), Connor Lunduski (14) and Caleb Asamoah (11), who have each scored at least four goals thus far.
 
"When we play a team like Oswego we expect hard work. They're a well-balanced team, skilled, quick, so we just have to prepare for that and track our runs, stay with our man and be focused the whole time," Zilka said. "If we just play our game we'll get a result."
 
SUNY New Paltz is set to face SUNY Oswego at 3 p.m. Friday and SUNY Cortland 1 p.m. Saturday. For updates, highlights, recaps and videos follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Facebook and Instagram.