The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball still reins as defending national champions. And although the Hawks' 2021 season was modified to just 10 regular season games, they are still set to compete for another NCAA Championship this spring.
 
"We're really excited to get the season going," said Hawks senior All-American setter Matthew Grace. "It's been a long time coming. It's been a year since the NCAA officially canceled our season last year and so, we're just really excited to be in the gym and have an opportunity to defend our title."
 
 
SUNY New Paltz, ranked No. 2 in the most recent NVA/AVCA DIII Coaches Poll just behind Springfield College, is the most recent national champion after the 2020 season was cut short due to COVID-19. The Hawks were playing some of their best volleyball last March and had just defeated No. 15 ranked and United Volleyball Conference rival MIT on the road before defeating visiting NYU in five sets to put them in position to possibly host the UVC Tournament as the top seed. Although their goal of back-to-back titles was postponed, the team brought back the bulk of their roster, which includes a decorated senior class led by All-Americans Grace, Aaron Carrk and Nick O'Malley, to help them pick up where they left off.
 
"It definitely adds some motivation because being ranked behind Springfield even though we are the defending champs it adds that little push in the right direction that we need to know that nothing is handed to us, and that we need to prove ourselves every second of every single day," O'Malley said.
 
Grace, a two-time All-American selection, including a first-team nod last year, became the program's all-time assist leader and is on pace to surpass 5,000-plus career assists this season. In 19 games last season, Grace finished with 693 assists and led the country with 11 assists per set, while also recording 88 digs and 15 aces on the year en rout to also being named as the UVC Co-Player of the Year. 
"As soon as we got the news that we were going to have a season we all just locked in," Grace said. "It gave us an extra piece of motivation for us to work hard in practice. It's different when you don't have something to really look  forward to, but as soon as we got the news that we were going to have the green light to go it's just been really intense in here and the excitement in the gym has gone up a lot."
 
Carrk and O'Malley joined Grace on the All-UVC and AVCA All-America First-Team list. Carrk built off a dominant 2019 playoff and was set to record career-high's before the 2020 season was stopped short. He finished the season with 264 kills, averaging 4.13 per set and recorded four 20-plus kill performances in just 64 sets played. Defensively, Carrk was just as impactful as he finished second on the team — just behind libero Robert Nolan — with 102 digs, while tying for the team lead with 29 total blocks.

"We've been pretty much focused the whole time since we've been able to play again," Carrk said. "Getting the news to play was huge, but we've been gearing up for that. This whole time we've been taking it seriously. We've been playing like our season was going to happen. We are really thankful that it is happening because we've been working so hard to make sure that it does."
 
O'Malley, meanwhile, cam off a turbulent 2019 season that saw the 6-foot, 7-inch middle work through various injuries and return healthy in 2020, showing his dominance by totaling 136 kills, averaging 2.43 kills per set and hitting a staggering .440 on the season to go along with 23 service aces.  
 
"Since everything got cut short last season, we were all kind of unsure of what [our future was]," O'Malley said. "Some of us had planned job opportunities in the future, others had no idea — myself included. But once we found out that the NCAA was going to give everybody eligibility back, we just kind of looked at each other and said, 'alright, let's run it back.' That's when we knew we were just coming back for another year."
 
SUNY New Paltz also returns its fifth-year senior libero in Nolan who was named as an All-UVC honorable mention selection. Nolan, already on the Hawks' single-season digs list twice, ranking fifth (281) and 10th (251) all-time, he was set to earn his name on the top-10 list for a third time prior to the cancelation of 2020. He finished last season with 144 digs, averaging 2.32 digs per set.
 
Junior Brandon Spulnick enters his junior season with SUNY New Paltz, hoping to build off a breakout second season. Last year, Spulnick ranked second on the team — behind Carrk — in both kills (193), kills per set (2.88) and tied with Carrk for blocks (29).
 
Although the UVC is limited to just five teams this spring, the Hawks will still have to get past their four opposing UVC competition, which includes No. 4 nationally ranked Vassar. Joining SUNY New Paltz and Brewers in the UVC this spring is St. John Fisher, Elmira and Nazareth. Each team will face each other twice, but only eight games will count toward UVC action. The top four teams will play in a single-match semi-final-championship format with the No. 1 seed facing the No. 4 seed, and No. 3 and No. 2 playing each other for a chance at the championship game. The UVC Champion will get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Along with being defending NCAA Champions, the Hawks are also the reigning UVC champs as well.
 
"I don't think I could tell you anything else that I've been thinking about this entire year," Carrk said. "When quarantine started [last year] I think that's when I started thinking about this volleyball season. I was ready to come back. I knew I wanted to come back. I couldn't leave it on this note and I think that's how everyone else felt, obviously since pretty much every one came back. But we're very ready. We're very ready to be here and ready to play."
 
The Hawks open up their season March 20 on the road at Elmira College, playing a doubleheader against St. John Fisher starting at 3:30 p.m.
 

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