New Paltz, NY — On a night where the State University of New York at New Paltz celebrated its five graduating seniors on its last home regular season game in the Hawk Center, the Hawks put on a show in an exciting come-from-behind five-set win over Division I St. Francis-Brooklyn Friday night.
After trailing entering the fourth, SUNY New Paltz (15-4 overall) extended the game into a fifth and dominated the final set to earn its 10th game in 11 matches after winning, 25-14, 13-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-6.
"It was a great feeling to beat St. Francis today," said Hawks senior middle
John Ronan. "We have a lot of time off coming up, so it was great coming in here, get a five-set win after [last night's] loss and give the seniors one last win to go out on."
SUNY New Paltz bounced back after falling to No. 2 Springfield College Thursday in four, which snapped a then nine-game winning streak. The Hawks opened up the first hot and quickly earned set point at 24-14 following a service error by the Terriers.
Tim Drake closed out the first, tallying an ace off an assist by
Bryan Kaplan, tipping his attempt over a double block coming from the right side.
The second was tight up until a 5-0 run at 7-7 turned the set toward St. Francis-Brooklyn. A service error gave SUNY New Paltz back serve, but the Terriers sided out the next point and followed with a 6-0 stretch that created a 10-point cushion at 18-8, all but putting the set away. A kill by
Pat Wing closed the gap to eight at 21-13, but St. Francis-Brooklyn scored the next four points to tie the match at one set apiece.
Gallery: (3-11-2022) Men's Volleyball vs. St Francis-Brooklyn
Kyle Shaffer tied the third at 13 on a kill with dump over the net. The game was tied at 14 following back-to-back serving errors from both teams, and Shanley tied the score one last time on a kill at 15-all, but a three-point run lifted the Terriers ahead for the rest of the period. SUNY New Paltz trimmed the deficit to three twice at 21-19 and again at 23-20 following a kill by
Evan Kane from the outside, but St. Francis-Brooklyn earned set point on the next series and ended the fourth with a kill by Aramis Rodriguez after a miss-communication on the second touch by the Hawks allowed the ball to drop in the middle of the floor.
Despite falling in the match, 2-1, the Hawks regrouped in the fourth and started working the middle with Ronan and Wing. They started the fourth with three-straight points thanks to a kill by Ronan and errors by the Terriers and they never trailed the rest of the way. Ronan aided in a 5-0 run that gave SUNY New Paltz a 13-6 lead, tallying a block and a kill in the stanza, while Wing served through the surge and registered an ace to help fatten his team's cushion, which led to a timeout by the visitors.
"We started getting me and Pat the ball. We knew that was the best matchup that we had out there, so we took advantage of it, definitely," Ronan said. "That was something we talked about going into the fourth. [Coach] Tony [Bonilla] said to us that we needed to start using the middles. That's where their weaknesses are, they have some weak blockers over there and me and Pat were able to take advantage and hit the ball well."
SUNY New Paltz earned set point at 24-15 after a nice play by libero
Dan LaRosa to keep the point alive, which was followed with a one-handed set at the net by Shaffer to Ronan who registered the kill. St. Francis-Brooklyn earned back serve on the next point, but then served into the net to force a fifth and final deciding-set.
Holding all the momentum, a four-point spurt at 2-2 gave the Hawks the lead that they never let go of with Shaffer serving through the run. The Terriers fought back to get within three at 9-6, but after another serving error, Spulnick made sure to end the match as he served the final six points including back-to-back aces to secure his team the win.
SUNY New Paltz held the advantage in every team category, out-hitting St. Francis-Brooklyn, .267-.230, registering more points (65-57), kills (50-48), aces (8-2), assists (47-44) and digs (41-38). Each team finished with seven blocks.
The Hawks were led by their two middles, Ronan and Wing. Wing had a team-high 13 kills on 23 attempts to hit .478 with two aces, two blocks and two digs for 16 points. Ronan followed with 10 kills on 19 attempts, hitting .368 in the win while adding two blocks and a dig. Shanley did a little of everything, ending with nine kills, hitting .280 with an assist, one ace, two solo blocks and eight digs. Shaffer led the team with 30 assists to go along with a block and five digs, while Spulnick had five aces and nine digs.
The win came after the team honored its five graduating members in Shanley, Drake,
Matt Logel,
Cam Clark and Kaplan. All five earned the start with Drake finishing with six kills, two blocks, Logel with three kills, Clark 13 assists, three digs and Kaplan with an assist and four digs.
SUNY New Paltz has a long hiatus until its next game with its final five matches coming on the road, four of which against UVC competition. Its next game is at NYU March 23.
"We're super motivated. We want to come back here and host UVC's," Ronan said. "We don't want this to be the last home game for our seniors, so we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that we get back in this gym and protect home court."
Post-Game Interview with John Ronan
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