New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team collected its third straight victory in the Hawk Center Wednesday over Western Connecticut State University (25-22, 17-25, 25-18, 25-16). Additionally, the Hawks honored its five seniors prior to the matchup for Senior Night: middle hitter, Shannon Thomas, middle hitter Kerri Neville, outside hitter Maddie Van Pelt, outside hitter Emily Visintini, and libero Nicole Fellone. 
 
The win places SUNY New Paltz at 11-10 overall (5-4 SUNYAC), while the Colonials dropped to 18-6 on the year (4-2 Little East). 
 
"Today we got an opportunity to see Shannon [Thomas] and Emily [Visintini] both play a different position on the right side and I thought they both did some good stuff," said Hawks coach Matt Giufre. "It's something that we are seriously looking at moving forward. I thought we played a very even emotional match."
 
Both Thomas and Visintini earned the start for the Hawks Wednesday with Visitnini piling on a career-high 12 kills in the match. Thomas chipped in with three kills and three blocks in the win.
 
"I haven't always gotten the chance to start in the past four years, so it feels really good to come out strong and reach a high level of kills tonight. It's just a great feeling overall for my whole team," Visintini said. "I just can't explain how much it means to me that my team came out for us five seniors just to win and the intensity that we had — I said I wouldn't cry after the game, but I did because that is how much it means to me that we won on senior night." 
 
 
Western Connecticut State began the game with scoring the opening four points, but SUNY New Paltz tied the set at four after a kill from Van Pelt and two attack errors. The Colonials regained the lead and was up 9-7, but a pair of kills from Visintini, a service ace from Fellone, and an attack error gave the Hawks its first lead at 10-9. SUNY New Paltz capitalized by making a six-point run to improve the score, 20-12. The foes returned the favor by scoring seven-straight points to cut the deficit, 23-22, but two attack errors coming from Nyliah Horton and Nicolina Chenard closed out set one and gave the Hawks a 25-22 win. 
 
Despite dropping the second set 17-25, SUNY New Paltz did not let the set loss affect its performance for the remainder of the game. Both teams exchanged points in a back-and-forth scoring affair to begin set three, until an attack error from the Hawks and kills by Abbi Debes and Nicolina Chenard gave Western Connecticut State a 7-10 jump. SUNY New Paltz responded with six consecutive points with the help of two service aces from Haley Timarky, a kill from Thomas, a kill by Neville and two attack errors from the foes, to take its first lead of the set, 15-11.   
The Hawks once again tallied another seven points to improve the mark, 24-15. The Colonials would not give up and tallied three more points until a kill from Visintini ended the set in favor of the hosts, 25-18.

Set four opened up with SUNY New Paltz compiling a 10-3 mark. The Hawks did not lose momentum and jotted down five more points after a pair of kills from Visintini, a pair of service aces from Fellone and an attack error from Debes to lift the score 16-7. Western Connecticut State made a short three-point run to cut the score 14-21. However, SUNY New Paltz shut down the Colonials to 16 points in the set, as kills from Demi Herasme and Julie Greenspan had the final say to steal a 25-16 set win and a 3-1 victory. 
 
"Of course, we got frustrated when we weren't winning in the second set, but I thought the resolve and the level headedness was really strong and that's something we are going to need heading into the postseason," Giufre said looking ahead to postseason play. "You can't ride big waves in the postseason. It's usually the steady ball after ball, play after play teams that continue to be successful in advance and tonight I thought was the night that we really did a good job with that, both when we were winning and trying to come back from behind. It's something that needs to be there moving forward." 
 
Timarky paced the Hawks with 21 assists, while Fellone led SUNY New Paltz with 30 digs. Both Fellone and Neville combined for six aces. Herasme reached a team-high four blocks, while Van Pelt sat on top with 13 kills and 14 points. Right behind her was Visintini after surpassing her previous career-high of eight kills. She also placed second with 13 points.
 
"We just stayed steady throughout the whole match," Visintini said. "We dropped a little bit [in the second set], but we came back with a fire and we came back to win, and overall it was just great energy and great playing. I hope we just keep the energy, this motivation and this desire to win and keep moving up from here, because that's all we can go."
 
SUNY New Paltz will go on the road as it makes a trip to New London, CT to participate in the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Bear Invitational. The Hawks will open up the tournament Oct. 25th and will battle Eastern Connecticut State University. First serve against the Warriors is scheduled for an 8 p.m. start. 

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