The Hawks Second Season Begins Friday night.

The 2021-22 regular season is over. Now the second season begins, as the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team begins its quest for its third-straight SUNYAC basketball championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

First, the Hawks have to eliminate SUNYAC rival SUNY Geneseo in the semifinal round Friday night at Cortland's Corey Gymnasium.

SUNY New Paltz (18-6 overall, 14-4 SUNYAC), seeded second in the SUNYAC tournament, earned a first round bye in the tournament and face a very familiar postseason opponent in the Knights. In the last 10 seasons, the Hawks and Geneseo have met five times in the SUNYAC tournament — four times in the tournament finals — with SUNY New Paltz victorious in each of those finals.

"I'm really excited to be playing in the SUNYAC postseason. It's obviously my first year playing and we've been preparing all season, so we're ready to go. I think the whole team is really excited," said Hawks guard Jenny Walton. "We've been preparing for so long and practice all week has been great. We've had high energy and high focus."

The Knights earned their ninth consecutive trip to the SUNYAC semifinals, staying alive at home with a 44-40 win over sixth seeded Fredonia Tuesday night. Geneseo held the Blue Devils to just 15 first half points before Fredonia staged a furious second half comeback to tighten the game.
 

The Knights and the Hawks met twice in the regular season, in games just five days apart. On Jan. 17, Geneseo roared out to a 21-7 first quarter lead, before SUNY New Paltz outscored the Knights over the next three quarters, only to fall 63-56. Five days later, the Hawks turned the tables in the Hawk Center, limiting Geneseo to just 13 second half points on their way toa 59-46 victory.

Geneseo and SUNY New Paltz may be mirror images of themselves, each featuring a balanced scoring attack coming from a large number of players, and both play a tight, smothering defense. The Knights have held opponents to 50.8 points per game on 32 percent shooting, while scoring at a 56.6 points per game rate and a 37.5 shooting percentage.

Eight different Knights top the scoring column for the season with junior guard Hannah Stockman (5'10, Northport, NY) at 9.8 points per game and first year guard Mackenzie Reigle (5'7, Batavia, NY) leading the way. Joining them are senior forward Megan Roell (6'0, Montgomery, NY) at 7.8 points per game. Junior forward Lauren Morito (6'3, Hauppauge, NY) follows at 7.6 points per game.

"We just really need to be aggressive and focus on our scout. I think that is going to be our biggest thing, and also finishing plays," Walton said. "Every single rebound is going to count, every single dead ball is going to count. We have to really focus on every single play in that moment."

SUNY New Paltz is riding a five-game winning streak heading into the matchup including a clutch 51-42 victory over top seeded Cortland on its way to its seventh consecutive appearance in the SUNYAC tournament semifinals. 

Like Geneseo, the Hawks have played stout defensively to limit the opposition to 52.8 points per game on 35.1 percent shooting. Eight different Hawks have contributed to a SUNY New Paltz offense that is scoring at a 62.3 points per clip. Heading the list is sophomore guard/forward Brianna Fitzgerald (5'10, Dix Hills, NY) with a 13.4-points and 5.4-rebounds per game average with a team topping 50 steals on the season. Scoring 9.1 points per game are junior guard Lexi Van Vorst (5'6, East Greenbush, NY) and junior guard/forward Maddie Gillis (5'9, Levittown, NY). Gillis also is top in assists with 70.

Rounding out SUNY New Paltz's rotation are guards Graci Serravillo (5'8, Altamont, NY) and Walton (5'8, Glenwood Landing, NY) who are averaging 6.5 and 6.2 points per game respectively with Serravillo adding 50 assists on the season. Sophomore forward Abby Korzekwinski (6'0, Shoreham, NY) is coming off a career weekend where she put up 21 points and eight rebounds in a win over Plattsburgh before ending the regular season with 12 points and six rebounds off the bench in a win over Potsdam. She is averaging about five points per game leading into the postseason, and junior guard Cassidy Deaver (5'9, Manalapan, NJ) is one of the team's best on-ball defenders as she has posted 25 steals, 19 assists and 92 rebounds on the season.

"We've definitely focused on urgency the entire season, but urgency in the postseason is definitely one of our biggest things especially in practice just communication and urgency to communicate," Walton said. "It's going to be big because New Paltz women's basketball team has gone far in the past, so we're really prepared and we've been ready to go."

SUNY New Paltz is set to face Geneseo Friday at 5:30 p.m with the winner playing in the SUNYAC Championship game against the winner of No. 1 seed Cortland and No. 5 seed Oneonta.  

SUNYAC Semifinal Preview Featuring Jenny Walton


Hawks Women's Basketball SUNYAC Tournament Promo


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