The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team hope to keep its SUNYAC winning streak alive this weekend as it travels to western New York to take on SUNY Geneseo (19-2 overall, 14-0 SUNYAC) and The College at Brockport (10-11, 8-6).

The Knights have yet to lose a game in conference play and currently have a strong grasp on the No. 1 seed in the conference. The first time the Hawks faced them was on Dec. 2 in the Hawk Center, and like most of their games, it came down to the wire.

SUNY New Paltz (14-7, 10-4) led by as many as 17 in the game, but SUNY Geneseo came back to take the advantage and held on for a 58-56 win.

But, the Hawks have hit their stride since then. Their defense has tightened up, giving up just an average of 48.2 points and causing 22.6 turnovers a contest during their current seven-game SUNYAC win streak, along with doing a better job of putting team's away in the second half of their season. In their last two wins, SUNY New Paltz outscored the opposition 74-44 in the second half to earn double-figure victories.

"What have we improved the most since then? Definitely our defense," said Hawks sophomore forward Brianna Alberga. "We've put in some new things that didn't work for us, and then we put in some more new things that we found out worked better for us… that is really going to help us out. Defense always wins the games and that's what made us lose the game last time. So we just got to make sure we stay focused on D, and we talk and communicate, and we'll get them."

The Knights have lost just two games all season, and is currently riding a four-game winning streak heading into their match up with the Hawks with their last loss coming on the road against Liberty League's Rochester Institute of Technology Jan. 23.

SUNY Geneseo is undefeated at home, and has averaged about 71 points per game this season, while shooting nearly 44 percent from the field and 35 percent from the perimeter.

"This time around we just need to focus," Alberga said. "We had them in the palm of our hand last time and we let it go because we weren't focused on defense. We weren't focused on offense. We weren't communicating as efficiently as we needed to. That's just some of the things we need to do, and we need to know the scout. That is the main thing that we need to focus on and we just need to stick together, and we'll definitely get it this time."
  As for the Golden Eagles, they are coming off a loss on the road against the Knights, which put an end to what was a five-game winning streak.

Although The College at Brockport are a game under .500 this season, it is fighting for the fifth spot in the conference standings, and depending how the end of the season shakes out, is still in position for the second seed.

SUNY New Paltz defeated the Golden Eagles in the Hawk Center earlier in the year, 68-57. Marion Dietz (18 points) and Lindsay Bettke (16 points) led the Hawks in the victory, while The College at Brockport did most of their damage as a team in the paint, scoring 22 of their 57 at the foul line.

"What Brockport does well, is we need to worry about their shooters," Alberga said. "The shooters can really kill us, and we need to worry about the big people inside that we need to get a wall up on. We need to make sure that they don't get easy baskets. That is the one other thing that we messed up on the last time around was [letting up] easy baskets. That is what made us lose focus, so we got to make sure that we stay 30 seconds every possession and every play, focus on the current situation every time."

Thus far, the Golden Eagles have averaged about 59 points per game, and concede about the same amount to the opposition. Emily Nestler (11.8), Schyler Laux (10.9) and Lindsay Johnson (10.7) lead the team offensively.

SUNY New Paltz is set to take on the Knights at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and then will tip-off against the Golden Eagles Saturday at 1 p.m. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, scores, recaps and more!