Cambridge, MA — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team (15-3, 3-1 UVC) played M.I.T. (15-4, 3-1 UVC) Friday night in a well fought contest, but the Hawks came away triumphant from the United Volleyball Conference game on the Engineers' homecourt.
 
SUNY New Paltz won, 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23) and extended its winning streak to five.
 
In the first set the Hawks had a hard time getting started, as the Engineers led for most of the set. The home crowd really pushed its team, propelling them to a win constantly.
 
SUNY New Paltz sophomore opposite Brendan Spulnick slammed a kill off an attempted block to bring the Hawks to within two towards the end of the set, at 18-16.
 
SUNY New Paltz senior captain Aaron Carrk stayed alert after having a kill attempt turned back, and anticipated the next set to send the ball in the back of the court and score. The Hawks remained down 19-18 and 21-20. A missed spike by the Engineers tied the set at 21 all. An M.I.T. block gave the home team a 24-22 advantage, forcing a SUNY New Paltz timeout. An attack error by the Hawks then gave the Engineers the set, 25-22.  
In the second set the teams were tied at 18-18, before a Hawks run with a Matthew Grace ace pushed SUNY New Paltz ahead, 21-19. Hawks sophomore opposite Chris Shanley then edged ahead with a 24-23 lead off a kill on the left side, causing the Engineers to call a timeout. Out of the same timeout, Carrk aced from behind the line and brought SUNY New Paltz level taking the set, 25-23.
 
The Hawks edged the Engineers 19-15 in the third, with a senior middle blocker Nick O'Malley kill and another to extend to 20-16. Shanley scored for SUNY New Paltz to win the set, 25-21.
 
The fourth set was tied at 11-11 with O'Malley getting another kill. The teams were equal again at 13-13. SUNY New Paltz led 20-17 after a kill by Tevin Skeete. The set was tied later at 22-22 after servers exchanged errors. An error hurt the Engineers going down two points, and Carrk finalized the set at 25-23 assisted by Grace.
 
The teams committed 21 attack errors each, SUNY New Paltz recording 47 kills and M.I.T. 46. The New York team hit a .236 percentage and recorded 4 aces on the night.
 
Carrk had 17 kills, and Shanley tallied 10 on the night. O'Malley and Spulnick followed with eight and seven kills respectively.
 
SUNY New Paltz faces NYU next on March 11 at the Hawk Center.

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