New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz overcame a late comeback from No. 4 seeded New York University Saturday in the semifinals of the 2022 UVC Tournament Saturday to regroup and win in five sets, advancing to the championship round for the seventh time in program history.
 
"I think we have a ton of confidence. I think we've had a ton of confidence all season and I think today was kind of just an exclamation point on that," said Hawks middle Pat Wing after SUNY New Paltz's 3-2 win (25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 23-25, 15-9). "I think we're fired up. I think we're ready to go. I think regardless of who was in this game [between St. John Fisher and Vassar], we're going to play a very good team. So yeah, I think we're one away from achieving a goal of ours, and five wins away from achieving an even bigger goal, so we're excited."
 
The Hawks rolled through the first two sets, winning 25-20 in the first and second. They were efficient offensively to open up the match, hitting .407 with 15 kills led by freshman Carter Lotz, who earned his third start of his career, and First-Team All-UVC selection Pat Wing, combining for nine kills in the set.
 
SUNY New Paltz coach Radu Petrus went with Lotz at outside, senior Tim Drake at opposite and senior Cam Clark at setter to start with All-UVC selections Chris Shanley, Kyle Shaffer and freshman Evan Kane coming off the bench, as Lotz, Drake and Clark helped the Hawks to a win over Nazareth in its regular season finale.
 
"We won, so I think they did well," Petrus said. "We won two sets, which was huge. It helped us a lot."
 
Clark played well, tallying 26 assists and two blocks and helped SUNY New Paltz to a 3-0 run early in the first set to give the Hawks their first lead of the period. Clark served through two of the points and set Brendan Spulnick who registered the kill that pushed the hosts ahead, 11-10. The Violets sided out next point to tie the score, but SUNY New Paltz answered with a kill by Wing and a kill by Lotz, spiking a free ball over for the point. The Hawks never lost the lead in the set from that point forward, although NYU did get within one at 20-19 following a kill by Matthew Noel.
 
 
Shanley subbed into the game for the first time and delivered a kill to bring the lead to 22-19 and NYU scored one last point at 22-20, but SUNY New Paltz put the first away on three straight points thanks to Wing. He bumped a ball over after Drake helped keep the play alive with the Violets thinking the ball would land out, let the attempt hit the floor just inside the line to push the Hawks ahead, 23-20. Wing then aced and Drake capped the set with a kill on another swing off a free ball to give SUNY New Paltz the 1-0 lead.
 
A back-and-forth second set to start, a 5-1 Hawks run midway through proved as the difference. Consecutive errors by the Violets got the stretch started and SUNY New Paltz started rolling after a Shanley ace that NYU couldn't handle to bring the score to 16-13. John Ronan answered with a kill and Bryan Kaplan subbed in and contributed with an ace, giving the Hawks their largest lead at 18-14.
 
The Violets fought back and were within two at 20-18 but kept a comfortable three-point advantage before ultimately scoring three of the final five points to win, 25-20.
 
The Hawks trailed for most of the third. They cut the different to one at 15-14 and 16-15, but NYU countered with a 3-0 run to go up, 19-15 and SUNY New Paltz struggled to re-gain the advantage. A kill by Shaffer, an ace by Wing and an attacking error brought the score to 22-19, but a serving error into the net allowed the Violets to side-out and then close out the set three points later on an ace from James Haag, winning the set 25-20. 
In the fourth, libero Dan LaRosa back-set Evan Kane who got enough on his swing to send the ball back over and miscommunication by NYU allowed the attempt to land in the middle of the court to tie the score at 20. Haag's swing on the next point went long to push the Hawks ahead, but he made up for the mistakes on the following point with a kill to tie the set.

SUNY New Paltz played some tough defense on the following point, as the Violets read the Hawks' hitters well, with their blockers getting their hands on consecutive swings by Spulnick, Wing and Ronan, but SUNY New Paltz continued to keep the play alive and finally Spulnick beat NYU on the outside for the kill. The momentum stalled there however for the hosts, as the Violets countered with a 3-0 run to get them to set point. A serving error gave SUNY New Paltz life, but NYU's Gautham Dasari registered a kill with LaRosa's dig falling just outside the line. 
 
"I think the guys tried to pay more attention," Petrus said. "In the third and fourth sets we made some easy mistakes when we had a chance to make a point. We started to play back-and-forth, but in the fifth set it was more clean volleyball."
 
SUNY New Paltz regrouped in the fifth set and its defense continued to carry them throughout the stanza.
 
The Hawks fought to gain the lead and NYU kept the score within one until two consecutive points by SUNY New Paltz turned the game. Shaffer set Ronan for the kill to put the Hawks ahead, 6-4. On the next point NYU served in hard, but a diving effort from Shaffer, followed by a touch by Kane with Shaffer from his knees putting the ball over led to a huge block by Ronan to erupt the home crowed and bench, fully swinging momentum over to SUNY New Paltz's side as it rode a 7-4 advantage.
 
Spulnick created a six-point difference, beating the Violet blockers on the outside to create a 12-6 score and on the next point had a perfect pass to Shaffer who set Wing for a huge swing to nudge SUNY New Paltz to 13. The two teams traded serves into the net to extend the game and put the Hawks at match point. Wing put the exclamation point on the game with an ace to ice the game and advance SUNY New Paltz to the championship game Sunday. 
"The fifth set we kind of used our energy from the end of the fourth set because we were down early, came back… unfortunately we couldn't [close out] but we just took that energy transferred it right into the fifth set, started off hot remained that way," Wing said. "Defense was probably the best I've seen all season. I remember one rally. I got blocked twice in a row. I think someone else got blocked. Then Dan LaRosa picked up every single one of them. And we ended up winning that point. So it's those little points, those gritty points that I think won us the game today."
 
Wing had a career game, setting highs in kills (15), aces (5) and points (21.5) to lead his team to the win, as he also hit .480 with three blocks and four digs. Shanley followed with 10 kills on 21 attempts. Spulnick finished with nine kills, three aces, two blocks and five digs, while Ronan had a team-leading four blocks and five kills.
 
"Feels really good, but obviously the win feels better," Wing said of his career day. "It's always cool to perform well but, super proud of everyone and how we played. It was a long week of practice. You know, people were tired… [but] I'm really proud we pushed through, and we got what we deserved I thought." 
 
The Hawks will fight for a chance to hoist their third ever UVC Championship title, as they will face No. 2 seeded St. John Fisher College, who defeated No. 3 seeded Vassar College in four sets, Sunday in the Hawk Center. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.
 
"Every day is different," Petrus said. "Our serve wasn't working very well today. We will see who the opponent will be. It will be a different strategy against each team."

Post-Game Interview with Pat Wing


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