The final stretch of the State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team's season has finally come, as the Hawks look to add two more wins in their last tri-match of the year against Nazareth College and Northern Vermont University-Johnson Saturday.
"After our last match at Stevens we're trying to rebuild the defense and improve our blocks," said SUNY New Paltz head coach Radu Petrus. "Tomorrow's matches are important for our record, but also can improve our overall standings for the NCAA regional ranks. A victory for Naz tomorrow can be enough for the sixth seed in the UVC tournament, and if we win they will not attending."
The Hawks first match of the day is against United Volleyball Conference (UVC) for Nazareth College in SUNY New Paltz's last conference match of the season, a team the Hawks have not faced this year. SUNY New Paltz earned a 3-1 (25-14, 18-25, 25-23, 25-20) win in the regular season against the Golden Flyers last year while also earning a 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-21) victory in the UVC tournament against Nazareth College in 2018. The Hawks have not lost to the Golden Flyers since 2013.
A spot in the UVC tournament is on the line for Nazareth College Saturday, finding itself at 14-10 overall and 3-5 in conference. The Golden Flyers were in a similar situation last year, ending the 2018 season at 17-13 overall and 4-5 in the UVC but lost to SUNY New Paltz in the first round of the tournament.
Never competing with Northern Vermont University-Johnson, the Hawks will look to earn a win against the first-year program Saturday. The Badgers, who originated their volleyball program for the 2018-19 season, are currently 1-16 overall and don't play in a conference.
SUNY New Paltz only has two more non-conference matches after the weekend concludes, and will look to finish strong as the UVC tournament approaches.
"With the last UVC match on the line against Nazareth, we're excited to finish up our regular season conference matches," said Hawks senior outside hitter Bradley Schneider. "Win or lose, we have the second seed in the conference tournament but we're using these matches to improve our gameplay and practice following coaches strategy for this last stretch of the season. Nazareth is a solid team, so we're excited to get after it against them tomorrow. At this point we just have to come together and play our best ball. The only option is to win the conference so that's what we're going to do."
The first game of the day against Nazareth College with start at 3 p.m. in the Hawk Center. SUNY New Paltz will return at 7 p.m. to take on Northern Vermont University-Johnson. To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.
