New Paltz, NY — A year without volleyball and a lot has changed for the Hawks women's program.
 
The State University of New York at New Paltz graduated all but two players from its 2018 SUNYAC Championship team and feature 11 student-athletes who have yet played a point of collegiate volleyball. Nevertheless, the expectations for a storied program are high and coaches around the conference took notice in the roster 19-year tenured coach Matt Giufre put together for the upcoming 2021 season.
 
The Hawks were ranked No. 2 in the SUNYAC Coaches Preseason Poll, only behind reigning champions The College at Brockport, which has hoisted the conference trophy four of the last five seasons. The last time SUNY New Paltz played a full season was in 2019 where its run ended in the conference quarterfinals on the road at SUNY Oneonta. However, only seniors Nicole Cooke and Hannah Miller were on that squad to feel the lows of getting ousted a year after claiming a SUNYAC Championship. Cooke, now a senior, sees how high the ceiling is for her team to potentially win it all again in 2021. 
 
"Since the first day of preseason we've had a crazy amount of team chemistry," Cooke said following a home scrimmage against Bard College. "We've taken it from the first day and into regular season, and I think our team has the potential to win SUNYAC's."
 
 
Giufre, serving as the Interim Athletic Director for the College during the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021, was concerned the year with administrative duties would hinder the connection he had with his players. But, the team took it upon themselves to over-prepare for the much anticipated 2021 fall season and made sure to integrate both the sophomore and incoming freshmen class smoothly and establish what the storied program is about.
 
"I am really pleased with how they went about last year in keeping up with workouts and keeping up with connection with each other, and really how this summer engaged in various types of conversations to really get to know one another and talk about the newer people what we're all about, so we kind of came to preseason with some bonds started and some known importance on the opportunity to play again," Giufre said. "I am really pleased with work-ethic and the way they entered preseason physically and mentally ready to go."
 
With the inexperience along the roster, Giufre reached out to his alumni to provide some guidance for his young team. He assigned each of his current student-athletes an alumni mentor to communicate with and talk about their experiences as a Hawk. Giufre hopes as the season continues, his alumni can become a resource and help guide his team through adversity the season will inevitably bring.
 
"… Hopefully, the idea that along the way it's a resource for them as they face ebbs and flows of season — especially if we are fortunate enough to be in a place where we are among the better teams," he said. "We don't have enough players on our team that has experience that, so we have to fall back to some of those who have come and gone that did and how they navigated that experience. Hopefully that is something that helps."
 
Giufre even brought in two of his former 2016 alums Anna Paulik and Morgan Roessler, who won a SUNYAC Championship in 2014, during the preseason to speak with his team and help out during practice to give another voice, even just for the day, to his group.
 
"Two of our alums were here last week to talk about their experiences and challenges and great times that they had, because they were also apart of championship teams," Giufre explained. "If I can keep that connect with the past, then through conversation they'll get some mentorship toward learning from somebody else even though it might not be in the gym every day."
 
Along with Cooke and Miller, SUNY New Paltz returns outside hitter Katie Steele, libero Mia Waddell, right side Makenzie Bills and middle hitters Victoria Konicki and Nicole Kleinegger who are all in their second seasons as juniors this fall. Waddell and Bills have the most playing experience during their freshmen season, as Waddell played in 22 of 29 matches with five starts, while Bills started 19 matches with seven starts. Steele followed with 19 matches played and four starts. Steele and Bills ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, on the team in kills, totaling 87 and 83. Waddell finished fifth on the team in digs with 189, leading the returning group and averaged nearly three digs per set. Bills and Konicki are the returning leaders in blocks, as the two totaled 33 and 21, respectively in 2019.
 
"My role has changed a lot since my only season when I was a freshman. Being an upperclassman is definitely a bigger responsibility and I feel a lot of people looking up to me, but everyone is helping each other," Bills said. "The freshmen are helping the upperclassmen and the upperclassmen are helping the younger [players]."
 
SUNY New Paltz will see a new starter at setter regardless with sophomores Dana Collins and Cate DiGiacomo both fighting for time. Sophomore Makenzie Williams also has shined throughout the preseason and will be in the rotation at outside hitter.
 
"We've got some really powerful weapons at the net, both in hitting and blocking, but our liberos and defenders are very good too," Giufre said. "It is really going to come down to being able to repeat quality plays over and over again. We started doing drills in practice where you have to do multiple things in a row to get points or get through a drill or activity. That's where we are lacking right now. We showed signs and glimpses of, 'wow, if we do that more often, we'll be very good.' They're not regular occurrences yet. We have the basics down pat and that's the next level of growth for us being able to repeat certain higher-level things longer."
 
The young Hawks will have to adapt to the college game quickly, as Giufre set up a challenging fall schedule with potential regional ranking implications down the road if the team can fight for a spot in the SUNYAC final. They will face Babson and Johnson & Wales in the Johnson and Wales Tournament Sept. 3 and 4 — two teams likely to earn a top-10 ranking in the New England region. SUNY New Paltz will face four members of the Liberty League in Bard, Skidmore, Union and Vassar with its other non-conference matches coming against Babson, which finished 33-2 in 2019 after earning the NEWMAC title and a win in the NCAA Tournament, Clark University, Mount Saint Mary College, Alfred University, The Sage Colleges, Farmingdale State, Montclair State and Drew University, with the latter playing in its inaugural season this fall.
 
"We have a tough schedule right off the bat and we might as well," Giufre said. "If we're going again, we might as well dive right in and then use it as an opportunity to maybe pick up a few wins and also figure out what it's going to take to be at our beyond that level."
 
SUNY New Paltz will open up its season with non-conference action at Western Connecticut State. The two teams met in 2019 with the Hawks earning the victory in the Hawk Center, 3-1. The Colonials finished 2019 21-7 overall and return 10 players from two years ago.
 
"After being off for so long, we're all really excited to get back in," Bills said. "It's been a really, really long time, and last year we came and was happy to even have just a little bit of practice, but now we get the full experience back. We're all just very happy to have competition back in our lives and that thrill of the game."
 
"There's a desire to get better as we go along, so I certainly hope we're not as good now as we're going to be," Giufre added. "I don't want to imply that it's OK to be bad right now or it's OK to have lower expectations of ourselves but I think there's importance to patience, importance to growth. From where we were the first day of preseason to where we are now, we've improved. I think we're athletic enough to continue that climb. It's going to be, 'are we disciplined enough and are we good enough at handling adversity to continue that climb?' That really separates good from elite teams. Those two things."
 
The Hawks are set to open up 2021 Wednesday in Danbury, CT against West Conn starting at 7 p.m.


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