For the second time in their 11 years as members of the United Volleyball Conference (UVC), the State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball program has landed five players on the annual All-UVC Volleyball squad.
Topping the all-star list was senior outside hitter
Chris Shanley, who becomes the third Hawk to be named UVC Player of the Year, along with being named to the UVC First Team. Joining him as a First-Team All-UVC selection was junior middle blocker
Pat Wing. Named to the All-UVC second team were seniors
Kyle Shaffer and
Brendan Spulnick, while fellow senior
John Ronan named Honorable Mention UVC. SUNY New Paltz coach
Radu Petrus, meanwhile, earned his second UVC Coach of the Year after leading the Hawks to the top seed in the UVC Tournament with an undefeated conference regular season.
SUNY New Paltz will look to capture the program's third UVC title and first since 2019 this weekend, as the Hawks host all three rounds of the conference tournament in the Hawk Center.
To view the full All-UVC 2022 selections and official UVC press release,
click here.
To continue reading about each of the Hawks' All-UVC honorees, see below:
Chris Shanley
First-Team/Player of the Year
Senior, Outside Hitter 6'3
Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West High School
Shanley's superlative play in 2022 led the Hawks to their second ever perfect UVC season with a 7-0 record and a 19-5 against some of the top DIII men's volleyball teams in the nation.
Shanley is listed among the top five in all five statistical leader boards for the Hawks, testifying to his outstanding all-around performance this season. He nailed 20 kills in a pivotal five-set win over NYU March 23 and had 11 digs and four service aces against No. 1 Springfield College.
In 71 sets played this season, Shanley has totaled 205.5 points and 174 kills, second-most on the team, while leading SUNY New Paltz in kills per set with 2.45 and hitting .222 on the season with 21 service aces, 93 digs and 16 blocks. The Smithtown, NY native has surpassed the double-digit kill mark six times this season, including back-to-back games twice against St. Joseph's College-Long Island (12 kills) and MIT (13 kills), while hitting .526 and .407, respectively, in the two wins, and then against the Violets (20) and Vassar (13), two much needed victories that helped solidify the Hawks' top spot in the UVC.
Throughout this past season, Shanley set new career-highs in nearly every statistical category, including kills, points (21.5), aces (4) and digs (11).
The UVC Player of the Year honor lands Shanley in prolific company, becoming the second-straight Hawk named as the UVC Player of the Year, as
Matthew Grace was a two-time selection in 2021 and a co-recipient in 2020 after Christian Smith earned the honor in 2016.
Pat Wing
First-Team
Senior, Middle Blocker 6'4
Massapequa, NY/Massapequa High School
A first time UVC selection, Wing had a breakout year for the Hawks as he played in all 23 matches and all but one set to provide a force in the middle both offensively and defensively for SUNY New Paltz all season.
He led the team in points (268.5), points per set (3.23), kills (203), kills per set (2.45) and hitting percentage, finishing the regular season with a stagging .467 success rate on 349 attempts. Wing served well all season and finished second on the team in aces with 33, while adding a team leading 52 blocks — 13 solo, also a team-most — with 34 digs.
The Massapequa, NY native tallied a career-high of 15 kills in a huge home win over St. John Fisher, which accounted for just one of 10 double-figure kill matches he had in 2022. Wing also set a career-high in points in the three-set victory. Defensively, Wing totaled at least four blocks five different matches including a career-high eight blocks against Cal Lutheran early in the season.
In his first full season, after two shortened years due to COVID-19, Wing became one of the best players in the conference, finishing as the league leader in hitting percentage.
Kyle Shaffer
Second Team
Senior, Setter 6'4
Smithtown, NY/Smithtown East High School
Shaffer had the hefty task of taking over starting setter duties from three-time All-America selection
Matthew Grace and became the key in helping the program back to the top of the UVC standings.
He finished with 584 assists, averaging nearly eight assists per set and was the facilitator in a SUNY New Paltz offense that hit .253 on the season and ranked third most in kills per set with 11.6. Along with leading the team in assists, Shaffer added 11 aces, 44 kills, hit .282 on the year, with 62 digs and 24 blocks — the latter ranking third most on the team.
Shaffer totaled 12 matches with 30 or more assists but continued to get better as the season went on. He produced a career-high in assists with 47 in a four-set win over MIT, tallied 44 assists in a big five-set win on the road over NYU and added 41 assists in a five-set win over Elmira where he also set a career-high in points (7.5) and aces (5), and totaled a career-high four blocks against Vassar.
Brendan Spulnick
Second Team
Senior, Outside Hitter 6'4
Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa High School
Since stepping into the program in 2019, Spulnick was a vital part in the team's success, as he helped SUNY New Paltz capture a national championship in 2019, playing all four sets in the finals and adding two aces. Last season was the first year Spulnick was recognized on the All-UVC team as he earned First-Team honors in 2021.
This past season, he continued his role as one of the best outsides in the conference and one of the most lethal servers in the country. He led the Hawks in service aces with 56, which also ranked second-most in the UVC. Spulnick totaled a career-high of eight aces twice, both ranking in the top-10 all-time in program history in a four-set and three-set match. He totaled five or more aces in five difference matches including six against Hope International, eight against St. Joseph's College-Long Island and St. John Fisher, and five in wins over St. Francis College-Brooklyn and Vassar College.
Along with leading the Hawks in aces, Spulnick ranked second in digs with 96, having big matches against NYU and Vassar where he totaled nine. Spulnick also fell among the top five leaders in kills (165), blocks (15) and digs (96), with the latter totaling second-most only to libero
Dan LaRosa.
John Ronan
Honorable Mention
Senior, Middle Blocker 6'6
Massapequa, NY/Massapequa High School
The steady play of Ronan earned him his first UVC honor in 2022. He had 112 kills on the season with his season best coming in the final weekend of UVC play, which scored him his first UVC Player of the Week recognition of his career.
The senior, who was also a part of the Hawks' 2019 national championship winning team, registered 11 and then a career-high of 12 kills against Elmira and Nazareth, respectively with a career-highs of 11.5 and 12.5 points and notched his first back-to-back double-digit kill games of his career.
On the season, Ronan finished second on the team in blocks with 44 with a match-leading five against MIT, along with four against Hope International and three in wins over the Brewers and Cardinals. In 79 sets played, Ronan totaled 140 points, 1.77 points per set, while also averaging 1.42 kills per set and hitting .347 on the year.
Radu Petrus
UVC Coach of the Year
Seasons at Head Coach: 16 (including 2022)
Record at SUNY New Paltz: 344-139 (.712), UVC Record: 77-23 (.747)
Head coach
Radu Petrus has led SUNY New Paltz to national prominence among NCAA DIII men's volleyball programs. Under his direction, he guided the program to 11 consecutive UVC tournament appearances, winning the championship three times while finishing as UVC
runner-up four times. His teams have been selected to the NCAA DIII tournament five times, finished as national runner-up twice. His 2016 team won the college's first ever NCAA DIII Championship and his 2019 team repeated this feat.
Petrus earned his second UVC Coach of the Year honor, the first coming in 2016. He has also been twice named AVCA Coach of the Year in 2014, and 2016 and was CaptainU Coach of the year in 2014. Since his tenure, 22 different students have earned All-UVC honors including four Player of the Year selections, including Shanley in 2022.
Petrus will look to collect his fourth UVC crown and first since 2019 this weekend, as SUNY New Paltz plays host. The No. 1 seeded Hawks will face the winner of No. 4 NYU and No. 5 Nazareth Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the Hawk Center.
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