Springfield, MA — The State University of New York at New Paltz survived and advanced past Marymount University Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, pitting a huge match against the nation's No. 1 ranked program, the hosting Springfield College Pride.
 
"We know it's going to be a battle tomorrow, but we knew we had to take care of business in the first round," said Hawks senior libero Dan LaRosa in the post-game press conference following his team's four-set win. "So we do that, and now we look forward to tomorrow."
 
Before moving onto Springfield, SUNY New Paltz had to knockoff a talented Saints team, led by former Hawks alum Dan Liberto, on the Prides home court.
 
SUNY New Paltz had a back-and-forth first set and finally took control midway through after a three-point run, thanks to a kill by Pat Wing and consecutive aces from Brendan Spulnick pushed the Hawks ahead and never conceded the lead the rest of the set.  
 
After cutting the difference to one, SUNY New Paltz rode its tough serving to create another unanswered run. Chris Shanley helped the Hawks side-out with a kill, allowing Wing to serve through the next three points where he provided two aces sandwiched between another kill from Shanley. SUNY New Paltz rolled from there, as a Tim Drake kill got the score to set point at 24-17 and it finally put away the win on a kill by Spulnick at 25-20.
 
 
"Today we played against our SUNY New Paltz alum, Dan Liberto. He did a good job over there. They have a good team and I was concerned actually about this game," said Hawks coach Radu Petrus. "Their hitters are huge, they can play well and when I looked at the stats, I see that our middle actually did well. We were over them in the middle of the court and also, after that we dominated more in the area too. That helped us take advantage of a few points at the end for the victory."
 
SUNY New Paltz was active at the net as they totaled 11 blocks with Shanley, Wing and middle John Ronan playing big in the front row, as they combined for four solo blocks and assisted on 10 more.

What also helped was a last-minute decision by Petrus, switching his formation to a 6-2 and having both his senior setters, Cam Clark and Kyle Shaffer, on the court with Shaffer playing some right side. Shaffer, a second-team All-UVC selection, was huge, as he totaled eight kills and two blocks, to go along with 23 assists. 
 
"I just do whatever my team needs me to do. Obviously I set, but I hit in high school a little bit so I wasn't too afraid to go out there and swing — that was kind of an overnight thing we thought of, so I'm glad it worked out," Shaffer said. 
 
"We didn't have another better option, so he did well," Petrus added. "I watched him in high school, and I still have that image of him at opposite over there, so he did a good job. We talked about that, and he was good today. It helped us a lot."

After the Saints came back to cut the deficit to one at 19-18, a four-point run aided in a 25-21 victory in the second set. A service error ignited the stretch with Wing and Shaffer coming up with a big double block to give back serve to Spulnick. Serving in hard, Spulnick forced an attacking error before another double block, this time from Wing and Shanley, brought the score to 23-18 for SUNY New Paltz.
 
Marymount earned back two points, but another serving error gave the Hawks set point with Shaffer smashing a kill off an assist by Clark to end the second.
 
After the Saints pulled away for a 25-20 win in the third to extend the game into a fourth set, SUNY New Paltz made sure to come out hot. A 6-1 run pushed the advantage to 14-10 and the Hawks never relinquished control from then on. Marymount struggled offensively, as eight hitting errors in the set helped SUNY New Paltz into a seven-point lead at 22-15, before a kill by Spulnick put the Hawks at match-point. Wing then ended the game with a kill at 25-18, closing out the first round. 
SUNY New Paltz dominated in every statistical category, hitting .323 in the game to the Saints' .196, totaling more points (70-53), kills (51-41), aces (8-1) and assists (51-39).
 
"They serve tough, and I think we handled them pretty well," LaRosa said. "We probably could have passed better here and there, but when we're passing in system and all that, it just makes it easier for Kyle [Shaffer], for Cam [Clark] and for our hitters. It makes it easier to score."
 
Wing led the way with a game-high 12 kills on 18 attempts, with three aces and 18 points. Spulnick followed with 11 kills and three aces for 14.5 points. Shanley added nine kills and five digs, while following offensively with 12 points. Clark matched Shaffer with 23 assists and registered an ace.
 
SUNY New Paltz national championship run continues Saturday in Springfield, MA against the hosting Pride at 6 p.m.

Post-Game Press Conference featuring Petrus, LaRosa and Shaffer


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