New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball team came into its home gym Saturday morning ready to up its performance from the night before.
 
The Hawks captured a four-set victory over Plattsburgh Friday and a win, especially in SUNYAC play, is always coveted, but with the type of talent they step onto the floor they knew they had a better outing in them. They responded with a dominant 3-0 sweep over Potsdam Saturday to conclude their first home SUNYAC weekend with two wins and improve to 3-0 in conference play.
 
"I thought it was great that we grinded out a win last night and weren't necessarily thrilled with every aspect in how we played and it's the next day and you have to wake up and have the confidence that you're going to be better," said SUNY New Paltz coach Matt Giufre. "I think, again, the team so many times this year has shown a sense of maturity and assuredness that is not common, and to just get up this morning, new day, new team we're playing against and just expect to be at our normal level and put the effort in was really good to see because we played, other than a part of the first set, a really clean match today."
 
The Hawks (7-6 overall, 3-0 SUNYAC) were pulled through by their aggressive serving and solid passing, which allowed them to play out points and go on early runs that resulted in a quick match. They got out early in the first to a 7-0 run with sophomore setter Cate DiGiacomo serving through all seven points, while collecting four aces in that span. SUNY New Paltz sided-out quickly following a kill by middle hitter Victoria Konicki and Mackenzie Williams then took her turn to serve seven-straight points, recording two aces in the stretch, to push the Hawks up big, 15-1. To the Bears credit, they continued to fight and answered with a six-point run to get back into the game, taking advantage of an attacking error and two bad sets by SUNY New Paltz. A four-point run influenced by consecutive hitting errors by the hosts, put Potsdam within four of the lead at 20-16.

 
 
Makenzie Bills slammed down a kill to get SUNY New Paltz to set point at 24-17, but the Bears wouldn't go away and a kill, followed by three-straight attacking errors, put them within three of the lead. Katie Steele made sure to end set one though for the Hawks, swinging hard on a set by DiGiacomo to help her team to a 25-21 first set victory.
 
SUNY New Paltz was more consistent in its swings in the second and third sets, while continuing to serve well to roll through the next two frames. Following another kill by Steele to give the Hawks back the ball, Nicole Cooke served through six consecutive points to aid in a 10-point cushion for her team. She recorded three aces in the stretch. At 19-7, DiGiacomo set Konicki in the middle to gain a 19-7 advantage and then took over from there and served her team to set point. SUNY New Paltz didn't allow the Bears back in this time around and Williams emphatically ended the set, beating the double block for the kill.
 
"I think we're serving with more confidence, knowing that we don't need to serve perfect but just do some things that are a little bit more challenging. I think the other part of that is that we're passing a lot better," Giufre said. "We know if we miss one our side-out efficiency is better than it was in that first week. At that time, we were missing way too many serves, and we weren't passing and siding out well, and that's a recipe for disaster. Now we're siding out a lot better, so it put lets pressure on our serve, because we know if we miss one we have a stronger odds of bouncing back and getting a first point or second point, side-out and it's not going to turn into a run against us."
 
DiGiacomo served through another run in the middle of set three to give her team a 15-8 lead in what was the final set of the day and the seven-point cushion proved to be enough to keep Potsdam at arms-length to finish off the sweep. A kill by Williams from DiGiacomo and an ace by freshman middle hitter Letisha Perez pushed SUNY New Paltz ahead, 22-16 and following a kill by the Bears, the Hawks ended the match with three-straight points. Konicki recorded a kill at 23-17, Cooke assisted Bills at 24-17 and after a long rally, an attacking error by Potsdam sealed the game.
 

And that's game!! Hawks finish off match point on a long rally with some great D and takes a 3-0 #SWEEP over Potsdam! #NPHawks #NPWVB @newpaltz @SUNYACsports #HAWKSWIN pic.twitter.com/RSWnFSJaPQ

— New Paltz Hawks (@nphawks) September 25, 2021

 
"Playing in our first home SUNYAC weekend was great," DiGiacomo said. "We had a lot of energy coming in and that's something that we've been working on in practice and it's really great to get sweep because these are really important games for our season."
 
SUNY New Paltz hit -.097 in the first and then turned their offense on to hit an efficient .667 in set two and .306 in set three with only two attacking errors in the last two sets combined. The Bears, meanwhile, weren't in the positive at all in the game, hitting -.023 for the match.
 
"We changed where our middles were hitting a little bit," Giufre said. "We found we had an advantage at a different spot at the net, but I think what happened was we got that big lead maybe let our guard down a little bit and we had some unforced errors, Potsdam started to play better and you can see the  momentum start to turn their way and we just used that break between the first and second set to just re-set what our focus was in the match and again,  trust we were going to go out and play up to our ability level and we were fortunate to do that."
 
The Hawks matched a season-high with 14 aces as a team, with DiGiacomo setting a career-high with seven in the game to lead both teams. Her 29 assists were also a career-high for a three-set match. 
 
"We completely changed our serving philosophy after the beginning of our season in the first few games. Now, we're aggressive and controlled. I think that definitely showed this weekend. We had a lot of great aces and serving runs," DiGiacomo said. "Today was a good connection day between setters and hitters I think even more than yesterday I think we're just going to keep repping it and building in all of our offensive weapons moving forward."
 
Bills paced SUNY New Paltz offensively, finishing with 10 kills on 17 attempts to hit a productive .471 in the game, while adding two blocks and five digs. Williams followed with eight kills, two aces and seven digs.
 
"Getting a sweep today was a great feeling and something we definitely needed to do because these are games that we need to stay confident in and try our best to end as fast as we can," added DiGiacomo.
 
The Hawks have a break from SUNYAC play as they are back on the road next week when they face Drew University Wednesday and then compete in the Kean University tri-match Saturday.

Post-Game Interview with Cate DiGiacomo

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