Box Score Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team bounced back after a tough five-set loss to Elmira College the day before with a dominant sweep of Bard College 25-20, 25-12, 25-11. 

Despite being a heavy favorite against the 0-12 Raptors, the Hawks got off to a slow start and found themselves trailing 7-10 early in the opening set. Sophomore middle blocker Tevin Skeete stepped up with two kills in the next three points for SUNY New Paltz to help close the gap. A few points later senior outside hitter Yorman Escobar gave the Hawks their first lead of the match at 14-13. It appeared that the momentum had swung in favor of SUNY New Paltz, but Bard College battled back into the set to tie up the score at 19. Once again they turned to Skeete out of the middle who was able to record kills on three of the final five points as the Hawks closed out the tight opening set 25-20.

After the slow start in the first set, SUNY New Paltz made sure to jump out quick in the second and with sophomore setter Matthew Grace at the serving line they did just that. Grace ran the first five points of the set and helped the Hawks reach a 10-2 lead. They never allowed the Raptors back into the set winning eight of the next 10 points to take a commanding 18-4 lead. Sophomore outside hitter Aaron Carrk ended the set at 25-12 with one of his three service aces.

SUNY New Paltz stayed hot to start the third set and leaped out to a 14-4 lead, leaving little doubt that they would pull out the sweep against Bard College. Escobar and senior outside hitter Matt Goldberg closed out the match with back-to-back kills.

The offense was powerful and efficient for the Hawks with a team hitting percentage of .398 and it was Grace making the right decisions with the ball dishing out 36 assists for the match. Skeete led the offense with a match-high 10 kills. Esobar and Goldberg both recorded zero hitting errors on the day tallying nine kills on 15 attempts and seven kills on 12 attempts, respectively. Freshman middle blocker Sam Yakubowski also tallied seven kills on the day.

Carrk and senior outside hitter Anthony Bonilla led the defensive effort for SUNY New Paltz with 10 digs each. 

The Hawks have a chance to improve to 2-1 in UVC play on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hawk Center against the Sage Colleges.