Patchogue, N.Y.-- The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team (12-3, 2-1 UVC) faced adversity and won in five sets against St. Joseph's College (10-5) 18-25, 23-25, 28-26, 25-19, 15-10 before taking care of North Central College (9-6) 25-23, 25-18, 25-22 on Saturday afternoon.
 
In their first game the Hawks struggled early, digging themselves a hole and having to work back down two sets against the Golden Eagles.
 
The Hawks tied the first set at 9-9 and 10-10, but St. Joseph's strung together a run to pull away 21-16. Two service errors and an ace conceded late in the set were too much to overcome as the Hawks lost the set 25-18.
 
The second set was very close throughout, and the Hawks went up 22-21 with a kill by senior opposite Aaron Carrk, and middle blocker Nick O'Malley tied the set at 23-23. The Golden Eagles once more topped SUNY New Paltz to gain a 2-0 lead and win the set 25-23.
 
"The home team started with more motivation, and we made easy mistakes under pressure," said head coach Radu Petrus about his team's performance.
 
In the third set, sophomore opposite Brendan Spulnick tied the set at 24-24 as the two teams continued to exchange leads. Spulnick recorded another kill to tie the game, 26-26, before closing out the set 28-26 with another one of his 12 kills. 
 
The Hawks turned it on for the fourth set, almost doubling their advantage at 20-11 with a block by sophomore John Ronan and senior Riley Dolan. An ace by serving specialist Dan La Rosa drove the Hawks ahead 23-18 after the Golden Eagles made a four-point run, and Ronan and Spulnick got the two kills needed to knot the match at 2-2, taking the set 25-19.
 
St. Joseph's made a service error to start the fifth set, and another to go down 4-3 before senior middle blocker Nick O'Malley came up clutch with an ace to grab a two-point advantage. Carrk then put SUNY New Paltz up 13-10, with his 20th kill of the game. Another Hawk ace, this time by senior captain Matthew Grace completed the comeback, as SUNY New Paltz won 15-10.
 
"Overall it was a good game for us, special for our mental preparation," Petrus added.
 
The North Central game was a different story, and although the first set was very competitive right up until the end, the usual suspects O'Malley and Carrk denied the Cardinals and put the set out of reach with two kills, each assisted by Matthew Grace who registered 39 assists on the day.
 
Senior Riley Dolan slammed a kill to move the Hawks ahead 18-14, and an error by the Cardinals followed by Tevin Skeete kill pushed the Hawks up 20-15. The senior middle blocker won another point, and Spulnick added two kills before a block sealed the set, 25-18.
Carrk and Spulnick led the Hawks to the win with 13 and 10 kills respectively. The Hawks hit at .375 percent holding North Central to a .127 hitting percentage. SUNY New Paltz missed 18 serves, but made up for their serve game with successful attacks.
 
"These two games will help this coming week, Ramapo on Wednesday and M.I.T. on Friday," the Hawks' head coach continued.
 
The Hawks' next game is vs. Ramapo College on March 4 at 7 p.m. in Mahwah, New Jersey 
 
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