Santa Cruz, CA — The State University of New York at New Paltz concluded the Slug Slam Tournament Saturday on the campus of UC-Santa Cruz with another two-game split Saturday.
 
The Hawks, (2-2 overall) after splitting their two matches Friday, started Saturday's slate of games with a 3-0 sweep over the tournament hosting Banana Slugs before falling to Cal Lutheran in four sets.
 
SUNY New Paltz dominated UC-Santa Cruz, a re-match of the 2019 NCAA DIII Championship game, with the Hawks taking advantage of a struggling Banana Slugs offense that hit just .026 and accumulated 36 kills in the three-set match. 
Cam Clark led the way for SUNY New Paltz, as the senior registered a team-leading 36 assists to five different teammates who recorded at least five kills in the win. Chris Shanley led the way with nine, hitting .217 and added an ace, three blocks and a team-leading 12 points. Pat Wing and Time Drake followed with seven kills apiece with Wing also contributing a team-high four blocks. Brendan Spulnick added five kills and tied libero Dan LaRosa with seven digs, while trailing just behind Shanley in points with 9.5.
 
The first set was tied at 12 before three points on kills from Spulnick, Shanley and an ace by Spulnick pushed SUNY New Paltz in front. The Hawks never trailed from that point forward and closed out the first with four consecutive points thanks to a kill and a block from John Ronan and a pair of attacking errors by UC-Santa Cruz. The second set played out similar, as a run midway through put the Hawks ahead and they never relinquished the lead from then on. They held set point at 24-18 and won a point later on a serving error, 25-19. The final stanza was tighter down the stretch, with the Banana Slugs coming just two points shy at 21-19, but SUNY New Paltz ended the match strong, getting a kill and a block from Shanley and Spulnick, respectively, on back-to-back plays before a Ronan kill put the team at match point after a kill cut the difference to three. UC-Santa Cruz came back to 24-22, but Evan Kane ended the game on a kill assisted by Clark to close out the set, 25-22.
 
The Kingsmen took a two-set lead over SUNY New Paltz in its final match of the night with the Hawks falling, 25-23 and 25-18. SUNY New Paltz extended the match after winning the third, 25-20, as Ronan registered a kill, Drake an ace and Kane another kill to earn the Hawks the set-three victory. The rally ended there, however, as Cal Lutheran rolled through the fourth. The Kingsmen closed out with four consecutive points to earn the 25-15 win.
 
Clark finished with 35 assists, while Drake had a team-best 10 kills. Ronan and Shanley each added eight kills apiece while Kane ended the match with nine kills and a team-leading 10 digs.
 
Wing led the team through four games with 32 kills and 44 points en route to being named to the All-Tournament team.
 
SUNY New Paltz has a chance at redemption Tuesday against Cal Lutheran as its next outing is against the Kingsmen in their home gym. First serve is scheduled for 10 p.m. eastern standard time.

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