Martin, TN  — The State University of New York at New Paltz NCEA team will begin its spring season Friday when it takes on Southern Methodist University and University of Tennessee at Martin at their home facility in Martin, Tennessee. 

The Hawks are currently 1-6, with their sole win against University of Lynchburg and hope to take all of their practice and hard work from the winter and start the season off strong. The SkyHawks are currently 3-5, with wins against Miami University, South Dakota State University and Delaware State University, and they are ranked 10th in the recently released Farnam Top-10 team rankings. The Mustangs are 4-3, with wins against Baylor University, South Carolina University, Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M, and they are ranked sixth in the Farnam Top-10. This will be the first time these teams face one another and should be a competitive match up for all the schools.

"Our goals for the spring is to continue getting the girls confidence up and continue gaining more individual points," said Hawks coach Brooke Nestor. "We will get to show five riders in each division so all our NCEA riders will have the opportunity to compete this weekend."

While NCEA is on the road in Tennessee, the IHSA team will be heading to New Jersey on Saturday to attend Centenary University's show, hosted at its home facility in Hackettstown. It's the Hawks' second of three regular season shows for the spring season before heading to regionals at the end of March. Junior Frances Baldinucci is qualified for novice flat and senior Katie Zacharda is qualified for limit fences, with sophomore Paige Parker close to pointing into pre-novice flat and punching her ticket to regionals. Freshman Abby Artz is on the cusp of pointing into limit flat and fences and going to regionals as well. The team as a whole is still holding their own in its competitive region, standing in fourth out of eight teams.

"Our goals for this weekend at Centenary are to come back stronger than we were two weeks ago," Nestor said. "The girls will be having subs for practice this week as we will be traveling to Tennessee with NCEA, so I'm hoping having a second opinion and point of view from our subs will give everyone their finishing touches."

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