New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team held its regular season home finale in the Hawk Center Wednesday night against Vassar, but couldn't come away with the victory. Instead, the Hawks fell in four to the Brewers, 19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-15. 
 
SUNY New Paltz (11-12 overall, 6-3 conference) had highlights in the second set to extend the match, but the rest of the contest was plagued with serving errors and then receiving errors in the final set that allowed Vassar (7-10, 2-5) to run away with the fourth, which solidified the game.
 
"It was the difference. We passed poorly, we served poorly, and we hit poorly," said Hawks coach Matt Giufre. "Our problem is we can't get out of our own way and we're not showing the ability to bounce back from a mistake. Mistakes keep happening to us. We're not proving we can bounce back either individually or collectively and it's bringing down the mood of the court, and it's hard to then generate any excitement, any offense and any of a run back. Rather than leaving a mistake as one independent thing, we're letting it snowball on us. It's been an issue often this year and it's still an issue. It needs to get fixed, like now."
 

An early 5-0 run gave the Brewers the initial lead in the first and they added on with six unanswered points in the middle of the set, which had five errors by the Hawks including four hitting errors, to give the visitors a comfortable 18-9 cushion. SUNY New Paltz climbed back to get within three at 22-18 following a kill by Mackenzie Williams, but Vassar closed out the set with the last two points on a hitting error by Williams and a kill from Hailey Hayes. 
 
The lone bright spot of the match for the Hawks came in the second. The momentum shifted in the set after a long rally ended with a cross court kill by Letisha Perez on the outside to get SUNY New Paltz within two of Vassar early, 6-4. The point was followed with back-to-back aces from Lauren Abbott to tie the score and the Hawks began producing big moments from a variety of players from their rotation. 
 
Perez getting hot, gave her team an 8-7 lead after beating the double block down the line. Melanie Podstupka was subbed in and served for ace to extend the advantage. On the next play Podstupka came up with an impressive dig on a hard swing from the Brewers and Perez finished the point with another kill down the line. SUNY New Paltz's lead pushed to 15-8 following back-to-back kills from Perez and Williams and then extended further following a kill by Abbott and an ace by Williams to get the Hawks out in front, 19-12. 
Abbott was the catalyst at the end of the second, coming up with an assist on a block with Perez to help her team side out and then followed with one of her career-high four aces of the match to boost the score, 21-13 in favor of the hosts. Vassar came back to cut the deficit, 23-20 to make the set a little more interesting, but ultimately SUNY New Paltz closed out following a hard serve by Mia Waddell and finished, fittingly, with another kill by Abbott in the middle.
 
Abbott and Perez had a great second set, compiling nine kills combined in the stanza. Perez, in particular, had six of her final 10 kills in the frame as she started just her second game at outside hitter for the Hawks.
 
"That's a hard change to make toward the tail end of the season to change positions," Giufre said of Perez. "She was very good in that second set, but one set is not enough. We got to be able to carry those things no matter who it is or where they're playing. We got to be able to carry good play longer and not let a mistake here or there take away everything we have done. Unfortunately, like I said, we're letting those things snowball and it's bringing down the mood of the team and bringing down the mood of the court. We've still not shown the ability to bounce back from those situations." 
 
Serving woes ruined SUNY New Paltz's chances of stealing the third. At 11-12, 12-13 and again at 14-16, the Hawks sided out but couldn't capitalize, hitting the net on each of those points to allow Vassar to stay in front. 
 
The Brewers saw their largest lead at 19-14, but SUNY New Paltz rallied to get within two at 20-18. The two teams traded points to keep the two-point difference, but the Brewers ended on a four-point run including a controversial touch call on a long swing by Vassar to end the set at 25-19 in favor of the Brewers. 
 
The fourth was close to start, as three-straight points by the Hawks, facilitated by good serving from Perez, tied the stanza at nine, but SUNY New Paltz never took control. Vassar scored four of the next six points before a 9-0 run broke the set open, as the Brewers tallied four aces in the stretch to eventually close out with a 25-15 fourth-set victory. 
 
The Hawks hit just .040 in the match, which was pushed by a .263 percentage in the second after hitting in the negative in the first and third sets, and zero in the fourth. Despite the poor numbers, SUNY New Paltz held the advantage in all team categories over the Brewers including points (52-47.5), kills (38-34), aces (8-7), assists (34-30) and digs (71-66) with each team totaling six blocks. 
 
Abbott led the way offensively with 12 points, which included seven kills, four aces and two blocks. Perez followed with 11 points, while Williams added 11 points, including eight kills, two aces, one block and 11 digs. Victoria Konicki contributed eight kills on 15 attempts to hit a productive, .467 in the match with 9.5 points on three blocks. 
 
The Hawks finish their regular season schedule this weekend at the Skidmore Invitational playing against the hosting Thoroughbreds, Bard College and Union College before heading into their SUNYAC quarterfinal round match against Fredonia Tuesday.
 
"I think this weekend is important in getting Letisha reps on the outside and getting Lauren and Nicki [Kleinegger] some more time in the middle on the court and getting some more experience in those places that we've changed a little bit," Giufre said. "However, what we do this weekend is irrelevant for Tuesday. We have to bring our A-game Tuesday."
 
SUNY New Paltz is set to take on the Raptors Friday at 5 p.m. and will play back-to-back against Union and Skidmore Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively. They then will have two days to prepare for the No. 4 seeded Blue Devils who defeated the Hawks earlier in the season in straight sets on their home floor. 
 
First serve Tuesday is set for 6 p.m. in Fredonia. 
 
"We're going to have our ups and downs in the game because Fredonia is good, but we have to be able to be at our A-game culturally and emotionally," Giufre added. "And, if we're not it's going to be just like this all over again."

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