The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team has won eight of their last nine games and are currently tied for second place in the United Volleyball Conference (UVC). However, the Hawks now head into the heart of their conference schedule as they take No. 10 NYU and No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology.
 
SUNY New Paltz is coming off two consecutive four-set wins against St. John Fisher College and Nazareth College, which improved their overall record to 13-5 and 4-1 in the UVC. The win against the Golden Flyers of Nazareth was powered by a third-set comeback. Down 11-3 the Hawks turned to senior co-captain Ryan Cole to help lead the offense, who had just recently set a new season-high for kills with 19 against Springfield College. Cole stepped up and recorded nine kills and two aces to give SUNY New Paltz the 25-23 third set victory.
 
A few weeks ago, head coach Radu Petrus switched Cole from the middle to opposite and Cole has started to thrive in the new position, becoming one of the top offensive threats for the Hawks.
 
"Coach talked to me about moving my position and of course I was open to it, I was willing to do whatever he thought would help the team," said Cole. "My teammates have been putting me in a good spot to succeed, the passing has been outstanding and Matt Grace has been delivering great balls so I'm just doing my job to put the balls away."
 
The Violets currently stand at 9-6 overall and 2-3 in the UVC, but they are a dangerous team to face. NYU handed Stevens their only loss to a division III opponent earlier this season. Both the Hawks and the Violets are vying for a good playoff position and know the importance of this weekend. NYU boasts a solid defense, holding opponents to a .189 hitting percentage while SUNY New Paltz comes in with a .268 team hitting percentage. The key for the Hawks will be to keep the block of the Violets guessing and continue to run an efficient offense.
 
The Ducks are the second ranked team in the country and head into the UVC weekend in Albany on a seven game win streak with an overall record of 16-3 and 5-0 in conference. They post a .329 team hitting percentage and hold their opponents to a .154. Stevens offense is similar to SUNY New Paltz because they prefer to set their pin hitters and use the middles sparingly. David Lehman and Gave Shankweiler are the top two targets for junior setter Jacob Patterson as they have 219 and 162 kills on the season, respectively.
 
"Against NYU and Stevens our biggest thing is always staying together as a team, always picking each other up no matter what" said Cole. "I think the cohesiveness that we've worked on and have shown the last couple games is going to be our strong point and as long as we fight as hard as we can I think we'll come out on top."
 
Junior outside hitter Nick Smith is the other top option on offense for sophomore setter Matt Grace tallying 3.63 kills per set on the year with Cole not far behind at a 2.7 rate. Grace is averaging 9.33 assists per set while fellow sophomore Robert Nolan leads the defensive effort racking up digs at a rate of 2.06 per set.
 
The Hawks take on NYU on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. followed by Stevens on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, highlights, videos, photos and more.