New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team came up just short Sunday in capturing a coveted UVC Championship title.
The Hawks (20-6 overall, 7-0 UVC) after winning the first, fought back in the fourth to extend the game into a deciding fifth set against the second seeded Cardinals from St. John Fisher College (23-7, 5-2) and was nearly a point away from rallying from a five-point difference deep in the fifth and tie the match. But, SUNY New Paltz couldn't overcome the Cardinals advantage and ultimately fell, 25-20, 18-25, 25-21, 13-15.
"They served better than us and receiving was better so the difference was serve-receive," said Hawks coach
Radu Petrus. "We couldn't run our offense well because receiving wasn't good enough. Today nothing was working, we didn't feed the setter the right way to run our offense that was the big difference."
SUNY New Paltz started the first hot and tallied its most efficient period, notching 16 kills on 31 attempts to hit .419 with
Brendan Spulnick and
Chris Shanley combining for nine kills in the set. The Hawks held set point at 24-15 following a setting error by the Cardinals, but St. John Fisher made a run of five straight points with Jake Baker serving through the stretch. However,
Pat Wing closed out for SUNY New Paltz with a tough swing in the middle for a kill.
After registering two blocks in the first, the Cardinals tallied 4.5 more in the second and started to get tip after tip off Hawks swings, which created long rallies for both teams. After a relatively close set to start with SUNY New Paltz opening up with three consecutive points, St. John Fisher started to roll midway through and out-scored the Hawks, 5-1 in the next six points to take a 13-8 cushion to force the hosts to play catch-up the rest of the way. The lead grew to as many as 22-15 in the period, forcing Petrus to empty his bench and regroup his starters for the next frame. They fought back to trim the score to 23-18, but a kill from Baker and a block by Baker and Beiter tied the game at a set apiece.
Petrus re-entered his starters to begin the third in a tight set. The score was tied at 13 before a three-point run by the Cardinals changed the game. Petrus called a timeout and Ronan answered for the Hawks with a big swing in the middle that deflected off blockers and went out of play for the SUNY New Paltz point, but never regained the lead.
They shortened the gap to one on a kill by Spulnick at 18-17, but a serve into the net on the next point allowed St. John Fisher to side out and take advantage with Josh Bigford serving through the next two points to up its advantage, 21-17. Wing helped SUNY New Paltz back in, finishing with an ace and then registering a kill, but a block on a swing by
Chris Shanley allowed the Cardinals to side-out once again. The Hawks had one last surge after Gavin Newman served into the net for St. John Fisher.
Kyle Shaffer delivered a hard hit serve forcing the Cardinals out of formation and sending over an easy ball that led to a kill for Shanley with Shaffer there on the assist.
With SUNY New Paltz cutting into the lead at 21-23, St. John Fisher coach Stephen England was forced into a timeout and the Cardinals responded out of the break with a kill by Beiter, while Ronan's attempt on the following point landed just outside the line for the error, ending the set in favor of the visitors, 25-21.
The fourth totaled seven different lead changes with the score tied 14 times. SUNY New Paltz trailed at 20-18, but a kill by Wing ignited a set-turning 5-0 run. After the kill, Wing served tough, forcing the Cardinals out of formation once again allowing an easy pass, set and kill for the Hawks with Shanley the beneficiary, tying the match at 20.
Wing served through the run and Ronan came up huge with back-to-back kills before Shaffer capped the stretch with a kill of his own, ending another rally with a point toward SUNY New Paltz with the play erupting the home crowd as he gave his team a 23-20 advantage.
The two teams traded points with Spulnick helping the Hawks to set point following a kill. With the crowd on their feet, Shaffer went back to Ronan who beat a double block for the kill and forcing the game into the fifth.
The final stanza was tied at three before a 4-0 run pushed the game toward St. John Fisher.
Chris Shanley ended the unanswered stretch after slamming a kill off the assist from
Dan LaRosa. The score was tightened again at 10-8 after a serving error, but the Cardinals countered with three-straight points to push their lead to 13-8. SUNY New Paltz continued to fight, as Shaffer set Shanley on the outside for back-to-back kills with
Nathan Petrik coming in and helping extend points with a diving effort on a rally to help his team close the gap to 13-10. Shanley beat his block on the outside more to cut the difference to two, creating a pivotal next point with St. John Fisher holding a 13-11 advantage.
Out of a Cardinals timeout, Wing just missed getting a touch on a swing by Baker who registered the kill and gave his team match point. Newman served into the net to allow the Hawks life with Spulnick, Petrik and Ronan all getting in on a triple block on Bigford to trim the score to 14-13. Another pivotal point, St. John Fisher went back to Baker who got enough on his swing to find the inside of the court, putting the game away.
"I think they had a few mistakes and in this is a mental game," Petrus said. "They missed a few serves and let us [back in] and created enthusiasm for us to win the fourth and in the fifth set we couldn't do the same."
SUNY New Paltz hit .196 on the day with the Cardinals totaling 14 blocks to the Hawks' five. Bigford and Baker combined for 36 of the team's 47 kills and had six blocking assists and two solo blocks in the game. Bigford was named tournament MVP.
Spulnick led the team with 16 kills, hitting .303 with two aces and a team-leading 17 digs for 18.5 points. Shanley followed with 15 kills and 12 digs for 16 points. Ronan set a career-high with 13 kills, while adding three block assists for 14.5 points. Wing had 11 kills and an ace, while Shaffer added 42 assists, four kills and seven digs.
The win gives St. John Fisher an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, while the Hawks will wait until 10 a.m. Monday morning to see if they did enough to earn an at-large spot in the tournament.
"We have a chance, but we don't know because now I don't know if they will consider St. John Fisher one of the top teams because they weren't in the top 15 at the end of the season, but they were in the top-15 in the beginning of the season," Petrus said. "I think they will consider us. We will see tomorrow morning at 10 a.m."
Post-Game Highlights
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