The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team has won six of their last seven games and they are primed to head back into UVC play as they take on St. John Fisher and Nazareth College this weekend.
The Hawks have played three teams in the top seven in their last three games and they came out on top against No. 6 Dominican University and No. 7 UC Santa Cruz, while falling in four sets to No. 1 Springfield College. Although SUNY New Paltz dropped the match to the Pride, there were still positives to be taken from the game, as they were the first Division III opponent this season to take a set from top-ranked Springfield.
St. John Fisher is in their inaugural season as a varsity men's volleyball team, and has still been able to put together a strong roster. The Cardinals are 9-9 overall but 0-3 in UVC play and will need to pick a couple of big upset victories if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. They have faced some of the top competition in the conference, falling to Vassar College, MIT and Nazareth. Early on in the season Mike Strumpfler picked up Rookie of the Week honors, but the St. John Fisher looks to spread the ball around fairly evenly as they have four players over 100 kills on the season. The leader of the offense has been freshman outside hitter Ben De La Cruz who has racked up 184 kills at a rate of 3.02 per set. The Cardinals primarily run a one-setter offense through the hands of Paul Hackford, but have switched it up a few times with Quinn Magiera running the attack.
The Golden Flyers come into the weekend tied with the Hawks at 2-1 in UVC play, but they do have a few more matches under their belt standing at 14-6 overall. Their big win of the season so far came in early February when they took out MIT in four sets. However, Nazareth is playing their best volleyball right now, as they are currently riding a six-game win streak. SUNY New Paltz will be able to have similar preparation in their defensive strategy because the Golden Flyers run a balanced offense similar to the Cardinals. Five players have 97 or more kills with Zachary Gillard leading the way with 192. Jake Kemp is the primary setter for Nazareth tallying assists at a rate of 9.7 per set.
The Hawks stand at 11-5 overall and tied for fourth in UVC play. If SUNY New Paltz plans on making a run at the regular season title and hosting the playoffs they will need to sweep the weekend.
SUNY New Paltz takes on St. John Fisher on Saturday at 4 p.m. followed by the Nazareth on Sunday at 3 p.m.
