The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team will take on No. 1 Springfield College for the third time this season today at 6 p.m. The top ranked Pride took the first meeting in the championship of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame Morgan Classic in straight sets. The second meeting was a solid performance for the Hawks as they became the first Division III opponent to take a set from Springfield this season. However, SUNY New Paltz believes that they have the pieces to take out the Pride.

"We played a good game last time out against Springfield, but if we want to beat them we will need to clean up some things," said head coach Radu Petrus. "They are No. 1 for a reason and we can't afford mental mistakes against them, but we've made a lot of improvements since then and we can definitely give them a battle."

The rivalry between the teams has grown over the years with the teams trading National Championships the last two seasons. The Pride enter the match at 24-1 overall while the Hawks come in at 17-6 following their sweep against Baruch College on Tuesday. 

Springfield College boasts one of the most powerful offenses in the nation as they are first in Division III in hitting percentage and top-five in kills per set, aces per set, and assists per set. The Pride have a deep and balanced offense posting seven different players with 96 kills or more. Springfield hits .367 as a team while holding their opponents to a measly .129 percentage. 

The Hawks head into the match with an effective offense of their own, as they are currently second in assists per set and fourth in kills per set in the country. Sophomore setter Matthew Grace dishes out the ball at a rate of 9.58 assists per set. Grace's favorite targets are senior co-captain Ryan Cole and junior outside hitter Nick Smith. Cole and Smith both average over three kills per set and average over a .300 hitting percentage on the season. Sophomore libero Robert Nolan leads the defensive effort at 2.08 digs per set.

"I think the keys to beating Springfield will be to serve tough to get them out of system and to pass well," said Cole. "Against a high quality team like this you have to play a perfect game, which I think we are capable of."

With regular season conference play over for SUNY New Paltz, the 6 p.m. match on Saturday will be a good test heading into UVC playoffs in two weekends. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, highlights, videos, photos and more.