The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team's second place finish in the United Volleyball Conference tournament allowed them to earn a spot in the NCAA Division III Championships, where the Hawks will meet Marymount University at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Springfield College.
 
Hosting the conference tournament the weekend of April 8-10, SUNY New Paltz defeated NYU in the semifinals, 3-2 before losing a hard fought finals match in five sets to St. John Fisher. After winning the first set 25-20, the Hawks dropped consecutive sets 25-18 and 25-21. They rebounded to win the fourth set 25-22 to push the game into five, but lost the final period, 15-13. 
 
SUNY New Paltz was led in the final game in kills by Second Team All-UVC player Brendan Spulnick, who registered 16 with 33 total attacks. Splunick was also named to the UVC All-Tournament team, as was Pat Wing, who scored 11 kills in the final. Chris Shanley, who was named UVC Player of the Year, had 16 kills on 43 total attacks, while Kyle Shaffer, who was named to the conference second team, had 42 assists, tying for a match-high.  
 
Despite the second place finish, the Hawks earned one of five at-large bids given to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, marking the sixth time since 2014 that the team has played this deep into the season. In their last appearance in 2019, they won the National Championship, defeating the University of California-Santa Cruz, 3-1. 
 
 
There are seven players left on their last national championship winning team including Spulnick, Shanley and fellow seniors Dan LaRosa, Bryan Kaplan, Tim Drake, Cam Clark and John Ronan.
 
This year, SUNY New Paltz will meet the Saints, a school out of Arlington, VA, in the opening round. Marymount finished the regular season 22-7, and beat Randolph-Macon 3-0 in the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal before losing 3-0 to the University of Rutgers-Newark in the final. 

The Saints are led by Hawks alum Dan Liberto '10, who is in his fourth year at the helm of the Marymount program. During his four-year career with SUNY New Paltz, Liberto established himself as a one of the best middles in program history. He currently ranks sixth all-time in kills with 1,007 — only six Hawks to eclipse 1K kills and was an All-NECVA selection in 2009. 

Since taking over the Saints program, Liberto has led the team to multiple CVC Championship appearances and coached numerous All-CVC selection including just the fourth ever All-American in program history in 2019.  
  In 2022, Marymount was led by seniors Raymond Tarasi and Ervin Harrell, both of whom tallied over 200 kills, with Tarasi scoring 240 and Harrell 208. Sava Topich, a junior, paced the Saints in assists with 728, for an average of 9.22 per set. Tarasi was also the team leader in service aces with 24. Fellow senior Miles Olson had 23. 
 
Marymount began the season on an absolute tear, winning its first 10 matches, not conceding a set in any of the contests. After a 3-1 loss to Southern Virginia on Feb. 8, the squad rebounded with six wins to close out the month. The Saints went 6-6 the rest of the way prior to the CVC Tournament. 
 
As a team, Marymount registered 1,235 kills for an average per set of 12.35, a mark that is 0.9 better than the Hawks' average of 11.6. The Saints average 11.27 assists per set to SUNY New Paltz's, 10.6. The duo of Tarasi, who stands 6 foot, 2 inches tall, and outside hitter Harrell (6'0), will provide a good matchup for the Hawks.
 
The contest should be a great one between two teams that were similarly ranked at the conclusion of the season. SUNY New Paltz was ranked fifth in the April 4 poll, while the Saints were two spots behind them at seventh.  

A SUNY New Paltz victory would pit them against the winner of the Springfield College and Penn State-Behrend match, which takes place at 4:00 p.m. The Hawks lost to the top ranked, 25-1 Pride twice during the regular season by scores of 3-1 on March 10 and 3-0 on March 30. The Lions, meanwhile, went 22-7 in the regular season, a strong record that included going 9-1 in the month of March. In the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament, they defeated Penn State-Altoona 3-1 in the semifinals and Geneva 3-1 in the final.

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