NEW LONDON, CT -- The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team split matches on the final day of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Bear Invitational Saturday. The Hawks fell to the hosting Bears prior to capturing a win against Worcester Institute of Technology. 

"We played a really good match this morning start to finish and unfortunately couldn't come through in the fifth," said SUNY New Paltz coach Matt Giufre. "This afternoon our physical play dropped and I'm really happy with how our team gutted out the win. We got to play 13 sets of volleyball against quality teams this weekend to help us prepare for postseason and definitely saw a lot of good things to help drive us forward."

In the opening matchup against the Bears, the Hawks were unable to pull out a five-set victory as it fell 17-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-19, and 10-15, respectively. 

The game leaders for SUNY New Paltz saw sophomore Courtney Gebhardt with a team-high 14 kills. Junior Demi Herasme posted 11 kills, four blocks and finished with a hitting percentage of .381. Senior Maddie Van Pelt and senior Nicole Fellone combined for 35 digs. Junior Haley Timarky paced the Hawks with 23 assists, followed by junior Caleigh Carr with 21 assists. 

SUNY New Paltz finished with a .182 hitting percentage in comparison to the Bears' .202 hitting percentage. 

The Hawks captured a five-set win despite dropping the second and third sets versus the Engineers. The scores of each set were 25-8, 17-25, 13-25, 25-22 and 15-10, respectively.

Van Pelt paced the offense with 17 kills and chipped in 13 digs. Herasme collected a team-high five blocks along with 11 kills. Timarky led with 25 assists, while Fellone ended with a team-high 23 digs for SUNY New Paltz. Senior Kerri Neville gathered four service aces with Carr coming in second with three of her own. 

As for the foes, Amanda Wetmore led her team with 15 kills and three blocks. Abbie Gilbert gathered 14 digs, while Catherine Reynolds put up 28 assists. Suela Miloshi sat on top with seven service aces, while collecting six kills and 13 digs.

The Hawks finished with a higher hitting percentage (.229) than Worcester Polytechnic Institute (.118).

SUNY New Paltz will remain on the road as it visits Poughkeepsie, NY to take on Mid-Hudson cross river rival, Vassar College, in a non-conference matchup. The game is set to begin at 6 p.m.