New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team celebrated its home opener Friday night with its first win of the season after defeating Mt. Saint Mary's College in the first game of the Hawks Invitational in straight sets.
"It's a great feeling to get our first win," said Hawks sophomore setter
Cate DiGiacomo. "We had some really tough teams we played last weekend and we battled with them, but I think getting our first win especially at home is a really great momentum builder."
SUNY New Paltz (1-5 overall) was coming off a rough weekend where they came away winless at the Johnson & Wales Tournament against tough competition, while missing key starters along the rotation. With incumbents re-instated into the lineup, the Hawks rolled through the Knights (2-2) in the first with DiGiacomo leading the way, finishing with 24 assists in the game.
Gallery: (9-10-2021) Women's Volleyball vs. MSMC 9/10/21
"It was a good home opener. I thought once we got into a rhythm we played well," said SUNY New Paltz coach
Matt Giufre. "I thought our serving was much cleaner, much better. We've worked on that a lot. Our passing was better. Cate does a wonderful job of keeping us in our offense and distributing the ball to keep the other team off balance. The other thing we worked on a lot was transition play. Hitters preparing themselves to take their best swing all the time and I think all of them really did that today, so I'm pleased with it. We gave up some runs and we need to get better at that, being more efficient and side-out, but it's a process."
The first started tight, with the Hawks letting Mt. Saint Mary's to get back after three consecutive hitting errors, but after the Knights re-took the lead at 14-13, SUNY New Paltz responded with a resounding 9-0 run.
Mackenzie Williams held serve for the Hawks on nine-straight points, as her team capitalized with kills from
Makenzie Bills,
Victoria Konicki and
Katie Steele. Williams put an end to the run after serving her ninth ball into the net. Mt. Saint Mary's came back with three consecutive points, but SUNY New Paltz made sure to put an end to the first with back-to-back kills from Bills and Steele.
"We're getting really comfortable within our offense," DiGiacomo said. "I feel like all of my hitters are always up and ready for me and that's really comforting feeling. We're just killing it altogether and I'm just really proud of everyone."
Another good stretch of serving, this time by freshman
Melanie Podstupka coming off the bench, allowed the Hawks to get out in front in the middle of the second. The Mineola, NY native served five-straight points and tallied an ace and forced the Knights in two setting errors to help extend the SUNY New Paltz lead, 14-5.
The Hawks took their largest advantage at 20-10 and again at 21-10 following another Kill by Steele — assisted by DiGiacomo — and a serving error by Mt. Saint Mary's Grace Riddle, but the Knights continued to fight and got back within three points after a seven point run of their own.
Letisha Perez, looking impressive in her first collegiate season, helped snag momentum back toward the Hawks, slamming a kill to push her team ahead, 22-18. DiGiacomo then went back to SUNY New Paltz's hardest hitter on consecutive plays,
Mackenzie Williams, and the sophomore outside delivered with three kills to help the Hawks close out the second.
"At times, we let Mt. Saint Mary back in a little bit, but that's something we're working on, staying consistent and playing at a consistently high level," DiGiacomo said. "I'm really proud of everyone how we didn't let it affect us. Mentally, we kept being strong and pushing forward with our own play and our own game."
"Yeah, and you know Mt. Saint Mary's went on a nice aggressive run there and made some good plays too," added Giufre. "It wasn't just us, but it was good to see us get a stop finally and then kind of just change the momentum and a few tough serves and good defense to stay on attack, so that was good. But we need to be better at mitigating those situations and that comes in a lot of ways with experience."
The Knights got up on the third set early, first going on mini-run with four-straight points to take a 9-6 advantage and then held their largest cushion with six consecutive points to get to 17-11. SUNY New Paltz worked its way back, though, with DiGiacomo working the ball inside to her middles, as
Hannah Miller and
Lauren Abbott each registered a kill to get the Hawks within three at 19-16.
A pair of bad sets by Mt. Saint Mary's had SUNY New Paltz within two before DiGiacomo swung momentum on a savvy play, dumping a ball over for a kill after catching the Knights open in the middle.
Samantha Cox then held serve for the Hawks and she took advantage, as she recorded an ace and forced the Knights into two attacking errors to give SUNY New Paltz its first lead since the start of the set. Mt. Saint Mary's regained control with two-straight points and again after trading serves to own a 24-23 advantage, but again SUNY New Paltz buckled down to close out the set.
Ceci Brooks tied the set at 24 with a kill and DiGiacomo followed up with two good serves resulting in a bad set and an attacking error by the Knights to end the third, 26-24 and the game, 3-0.
"It was a huge improvement," DiGiacomo said of her team's serving game, which was their biggest Achilles Heel during their four games at the J&W Tournament. "We've been doing a special drill in practice where everyone has to serve in a row consistently and if anyone messes up you start over, so I think that's helped us a lot, and it obviously has tremendously helped our ability to play consistently and keep balls in and alive."
Along with her 24 assists, DiGiacomo added two kills and six digs to her stat line. Waddell led the team defensively, as the libero finished with 13 digs to go along with two assists and an ace. DiGiacomo did well to spread the ball around, as 10 different Hawks registered a kill in the win. Bills and Williams tied for a team-high with seven apiece, while Bills added three blocks and two digs and Williams recorded one block and nine digs.
SUNY New Paltz is back in the Hawk Center Saturday playing two games, first at 11 a.m. against Alfred University and the second at 5 p.m. to close out the Hawks Invitational against Russell Sage College.
Going into Saturday, all Giufre is looking for is improvement and consistency from his team.
"That's all we're looking for," said Giufre, "Just better on every skill and being able to repeat good stuff for longer stretches and be able to get out of a dip before it becomes a hole. That's all it is."
DiGiacomo Post-Game Interview
Game Highlights
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