The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team will travel to Mahwah, NJ this weekend, as it faces off in the Ramapo College tournament Sep. 14 and 15. The Hawks will play Penn State Harrisburg, Bard College, Mount Aloysius College and Ramapo College.
SUNY New Paltz comes into the weekend at 6-3, losing its most recent match 3-1 (23-25, 26-24, 15-25, 22-25) Wednesday to Stevens Institute of Technology, which is ranked in the top-50 in the NCAA DIII national poll. This past weekend, the Hawks swept its own tournament, the Hawk Invitational, beating four teams while only dropping two sets.
"Even though these teams aren't in our conference, they are still very important games," said senior outside hitter Taylor Cimillo. "They can still determine if we go to the NCAA tournament."
Through the first nine games, the Hawks are having their best start to the season since 2014, which ended in a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Although it put out a lackluster performance against the Ducks Wednesday, SUNY New Paltz hopes to add a few more non-conference wins under its belt before SUNYAC pool play begins Sept. 21.
The Hawks aren't as familiar with the Nittany Lions, the Mounties or the hosting Roadrunners, but defeated the Raptors at home last season, 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-17).
"We're looking forward to going down there," said Hawks coach Matt Giufre. "Ramapo always brings in quality opponents. When you go travel, you get to see teams from different areas that might play a different style of volleyball. Those opportunities make you sharper."
SUNY New Paltz will open up the weekend at 4 p.m. Friday against Penn State Harrisburg, followed by a match at 6 p.m. against Bard College. The Hawks will play back-to-back games on Saturday as well, starting at 1 p.m. against Mount Aloysius College, with a 3 p.m. match against Ramapo College afterwards.
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