SPRINGFIELD, MA — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team had its three game winning streak snapped Wednesday night at Blake Arena, losing to the nationally No. 1 ranked Springfield College Pride 3-0, with set scores of 25-17, 25-15, and 25-17.
It was the second time the Hawks faced Springfield after losing on March 10, 3-1. Wednesday night, SUNY New Paltz's loss dropped its record to 17-5, while the Pride, winning their 10th consecutive game, remained undefeated at home and improved to 23-1 overall.
"Nothing worked today," said Hawks coach Radu Petrus of his team's performance. "Hopefully we can get it together for the next two conferences matches."
Springfield tallied 28 kills to the Hawks' 22, and were led by Brennen Brandow in that department, who had 11. Matt Lilley led the home team in assists with 24. On the SUNY New Paltz side, Pat Wing had eight kills, while John Ronan had four. In the assists category, Kyle Shaffer registered 17.
In the first set, the Pride raced out to an 8-2 advantage following an ace from Giancarlo Carrion. The Hawks cut the Springfield first set lead to four on five different occasions, but were plagued by eight service errors in the opening set. After an ace from Brendan Spulnick trimmed the advantage to 19-14, Spulnick made a service error. A kill by Jarrett Anderson gave his team a seven point advantage at 21-14, and a SUNY New Paltz service error by Carter Lotz clinched the first set for the Pride, 25-17.
The second set saw Springfield get off to another great start, as they took a 16-4 lead after the Hawks' Tim Drake was blocked by Noah Weislo and Chris Parker. SUNY New Paltz tallied the next three points of the set, after Brandow errored on a serve, Wing scored a kill, and Bryan Kaplan aced. But just as they did all match, the Pride responded, this time with four of the next six points to take a 20-9 lead. The Hawks made it 20-11 after Weislo errored and Chris Shanley scored a kill, but Springfield won the set 25-15 after a service error by Drake followed two kills from Parker. 
SUNY New Paltz came out with a sense of urgency in set three, getting to within one, at 6-5, after a kill from Ronan that was assisted by Shaffer. The next two kills belonged to Anderson though, who quickly got his team's lead to 8-5. Not to be outdone, the Hawks scored three of the ensuing four points, including two more kills from Wing, to cut the opposition's lead to one at 9-8. Countering right back was the Pride, who forced the Hawks into three straight attack errors, two of which were on the part of Kane and Wing, to lead 12-8.
Springfield stretched their advantage to 19-12 after a Spulnick attack error, but once again, a well coached and talented SUNY New Paltz squad stayed in the contest. Yet another kill from Wing and an ace from Spulnick, aided by two errors from Weislo and one from Anderson, allowed the Hawks to get within four at 21-17. The Pride though, with Brandow getting two straight kills, Carrion registering an ace and Brandow scoring another kill from Carrion, scored the next four points to close the third set and the match, giving Springfield the 25-17 set win and 3-0 match win.
The contest was a competitive one between two top programs, but the Hawks for the second time this season just couldn't muster up enough against to this point the top team in the country.
Despite the defeat, SUNY New Paltz is still one of the best teams in the nation as they head into two weekend matches with Elmira College and Nazareth College to wrap up their regular season.
"We need better defense this coming weekend," he said. "We have one more practice Thursday to come back and work on our game strategy."
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