It's been more than nine months since the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team's 2017-18 season came to an end in the conference semifinals, ending its two-straight State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship run. Disappointed with how last year ended, the Hawks are eager to get back into SUNYAC play and re-claim their spot at the top of the conference. The road begins this weekend, as they kick off conference play against Plattsburgh State and SUNY Potsdam.

"We are very excited to get back into SUNYAC play," said SUNY New Paltz junior guard Marion Dietz. "We literally talked about it last night how we want to dominate the conference this year. Our goal is 18-0 and hopefully win the conference, host the conference tournament and go into the NCAA and go beyond that. So we are really excited to get started and get going." 

Getting back into conference play is especially anticipated for junior forward Paige Niemeyer whose sophomore season was cut short due to a season ending knee injury in the middle of the year. Now healthy, Niemeyer is looking forward to taking on the Cardinals and Bears on their home court to help her team get back to SUNYAC prominence.

"Yeah, it's been awhile," Niemeyer said. "It has been probably nine months or something, probably longer but I am super excited. I missed the last half of the season, so I missed a lot of conference games. I am excited to show people that I am healthy and that I am ready to play, because I feel healthy and I feel like I am back and I am ready to play some conference play."

The Hawks (2-2) are coming off a tough 87-50 loss against Division I Stony Brook University. The loss broke a two-game winning streak for SUNY New Paltz, which is looking to build from its previous outing.

"Playing Stony Brook was a great experience," Dietz said. "Playing top competition in an uncomfortable environment for us was awesome. One of the major take aways [from that game] was that we get away with stuff half the time at our level, and we have to learn to not get away with stuff. We have to learn to do stuff 10-out-of-10 times instead of 5-out-of-10 times."

Prior to playing the Seawolves, the Hawks earned wins over Catholic University (81-54) and Vassar College (92-81) – both on the road -- after losing a heart-breaking overtime game at home against RIT, 79-71.
In its first three games SUNY New Paltz averaged 81.3 points per game, while allowing just 71.3 points against. Rachel Simon leads the team with nearly 19 points, four rebounds and nearly two steals per game, while shooting 38 percent from the floor. Lindsay Bettke follows with about 15 points, five rebounds and three assists per game. Dietz and Niemeyer both head into the weekend averaging double-figure points, 12.8 and 10.3 per game, respectively. Dietz and Niemeyer are also pulling down about five boards per game, while Niemeyer has hit almost 70 percent of her shots from the floor.

Last season, SUNY New Paltz defeated both the Cardinals and Bears in the home-and-home, as neither team qualified for the SUNYAC Tournament.

This season, Plattsburgh State has won three of its first four games and is coming off a victory on the road against St. Lawrence University. The Cardinals are averaging 64.8 points per game, while giving up 61.5 points against. Junior guard Taylor Durnin leads the team with 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

"Plattsburgh is pretty scrappy," Dietz said. "They have good guards, they have a good shooter, so we just got to come out and compete like we would on any other game day." 

SUNY Potsdam enters the weekend at 3-3, winning its most recent game against Clarkson Nov. 27, 74-63. The Bears averaged 62 points per game in their first six games, while yielding about 61 points against. Freshman forward Devyn Elliott leads the team with 18.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, and has already put up a career-high 31 points against SUNY Canton Nov. 18.

"This weekend is really big, because if you think about it a lot of the coaches were switched around after season last year, so we have to come in and show the new coaches what New Paltz basketball is and what we're about," Niemeyer said. "We have to show them that we don't back down from anything. We are a scrappy team and we just have to welcome them the SUNY New Paltz way into the league, so this is a super important weekend to come into right now."

The Hawks are set to take on the Cardinals Friday at 5:30 p.m. and then the Bears Saturday at 2 p.m.

For everything #NPHawks including photos, video, recaps and highlights, be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Facebook and Instagram.