The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team (13-4 overall, 4-0 UVC) is looking to extend its winning streak further this week, as the team travels upstate to visit The Sage Colleges (6-10, 1-4) Wednesday and Elms College (16-4) Friday.

The Gators haven't been fortunate in the United Volleyball Conference (UVC), collecting just one win against Bard College (1-10, 0-6), a team that still hasn't won its first UVC game this year. The Hawks are looking to take advantage of the inferior team on paper.

"We've been splitting up between the middles and the outside," said Hawks senior outside hitter Nick Smith. "We've been working on middle blocking a lot, a lot of defense and back row attacks are key." 

The Hawks know serving and passing are the key aspects of the game, and if they perform well in those areas, they can continue their winning streak and stay undefeated in the UVC.

"It's very important for us to be the leaders and to continue working hard in practice," Smith added. " We have to continue to push. We got a lot of new freshmen who are hungry, but we just got to continue to push forward."

As SUNY New Paltz enters a critical stretch of games with Springfield College (16-2) next week, the young Hawks are finding their groove better every day.

"We've been playing together for a long time now, so I think we're gelling pretty well," said Hawks freshman middle blocker John Ronan. "We're always mixing up who we play with in practice so everybody's got chemistry."

Ronan got his first start last Thursday against Baruch College 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-20) contributing six kills in the win.

The Hawks play Feb. 6th at The Sage Colleges at 7 p.m. and Feb. 8th at Elms College at 7 p.m.

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