Leaving the 2017-18 season with just a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) semifinal appearance was a disappointment for the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team. The Hawks set their standards of a conference championship and a run in the NCAA Tournament the bar every season, and the shortened stint last year is fueling the motivation of a bounce back season in 2019.
 
"We have the same team coming back here, but I don't think we thought last season was successful at all," said SUNY New Paltz senior guard Lindsay Bettke. "If we don't come home with a championship that wasn't successful for us, so this year we are looking to be successful and get that SUNYAC Championship."
 
The Hawks finished the season 17-10 overall and 12-6 in conference a season ago, while not featuring a single senior on its roster during its 2017-18 campaign and as a result return the bulk of its roster for the upcoming year. 
 
Two-time All-SUNYAC selection Bettke highlights a talented backcourt for the Hawks, along with First-Team All-SUNYAC selection and last year's team MVP, Rachel Simon, who came to SUNY New Paltz last season from Caldwell University. Junior Marion Dietz, and senior Taylor Howell rounds out a decorated group, as the senior captain is primed for one of her best seasons.
 
"Being that it is my senior season I do feel the urgency a lot more this year [and] I definitely feel like as a team we feel the urgency a lot more this year," Howell said. "We don't have the opportunity to come back next year and have the same team, so right now it is all or nothing. Every single day we're going into practice excited and ready to go because this is it. Every day is our last day in that moment. We're trying to stay in the moment, move forward and be positive."
 
With a core back, Hawks head coach Jamie Seward and his staff decided to implement a more fast-paced up-tempo offense to take advantage of his team's dynamic skill-set and ability to shoot the ball.
 
"We thought we had a team that would most benefit in an attacking style. It kind of started with what we needed to do better defensively, because we struggled early on in the year last year. I think that ultimately impacted us offensively as well," Seward explained. "This year, we took what we started off doing last year and simplified it to the point where we could allow them to not think at all and to be able to play quicker, and make decision quicker. We thought there was a synergy with that along with how we wanted to defend. We thought it went together on a couple different and I think it fits are personnel really well."
 
With the type of attacking style SUNY New Paltz want to play, practices has also upped in tempo, as the Hawks are prepared to force teams to compete at the same pace they practice at.
 
"In order for us to play in this fast-paced type of offense we knew we would have to be in great conditioning shape and we know we have the players for it, so we were really excited to get into it," Howell said. "We wanted to play like that last year and we didn't quite have the right pieces or at least the idea of it, but this year I definitely feel like we have the right people for it. We're in the right positions and we're conditioned for it, so it is going to be great to be able to move fast-paced. I don't think people are going to be able to keep up with us."
 
"Right now our key to success is to push through that fatigue wall during practice," Bettke added, "This year we are looking to play fast and really attack the ball on defense and on offense. I think right now the key is to just keep pushing through the hard practices and get our conditioning up."
 
The Hawks averaged around 66.2 points per game last season and will undoubtedly try and improve those numbers ten-fold. The Hawks have the offensive weapons to do so, returning Simon, who averaged 14.3 points last season, along with Bettke (12.5 points per game) and Dietz (11.5 points per game), along with getting back starting forward Paige Niemeyer, whose season was cut short last year due to a knee injury.  
Although SUNY New Paltz is low in numbers, touting just 12 on the roster, Seward is excited about his team's quality of depth on the bench. Junior Kei Kei Glover, and freshmen Bridget Whelan and Jessie Maurer will all see minutes on the court, along with incumbents Madison Van Pelt, Philesha Teape, Nicole Ziogas and Brianna Alberga.
 
"I also think as far as the quality of players that we have, there isn't a big drop off anywhere," Seward said. "Usually when you get somewhere around seven or eight there is a pretty big gap to the next two or three and we don't really feel like that is the case. We think everybody on our roster can play and can contribute right now. In that sense we have really strong depth, but in the sense of just being a little bit concerned about things that happen over the course of a basketball season where that might leave us in a total numbers stand point that is a concern."
 
Along with a breakout offensive season looming for Howell, she leads the team with her tenacity defensively. She will get put to the test early, however, as SUNY New Paltz will face All-American point guard in Rochester Institute of Technology's Cori Okada in its home opener Friday.
 
Okada averaged 13.2 points per game with a 45.7 shooting percentage, while also leading the team with four assists per game. As a team, the Tigers averaged 70.6 points per game, while allowing just 57.4 points against. RIT finished second in the Liberty League Conference Championship Tournament, but earned an at-large bit into the NCAA Tournament and advanced into the Sweet 16, falling to University of Rochester in a tight, 59-55 game.

The Tigers is a tough test for the Hawks in their season-opener, but SUNY New Paltz is excited to get the season underway as Friday's contest should yield an exciting high-scoring game. 
 
"We would like to see that we've been able to establish, this is the way we want to play and make that game look like the way we practice every day," Seward said. "RIT is a team that has some really good guards as well and it is going to be on paper it is going to be a fun game to watch. But, the first game always has a lot of mistakes and I think that is going to be the biggest factor and we already talked to our team about that… The team that wins really is really going to be the team who does the best job of responding to those mistakes. I think that also speaks to what kind of team you will be moving forward."

The Hawks are set to take on RIT in the Hawk Center Friday at 7 p.m. To follow along with live stats, click here. For live streaming, follow New Paltz Hawks on Facebook, and for everything else #NPHawks follow @nphawks on Twitter and subscribe to New Paltz Hawks on Youtube.