New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz rolled to a three-set win Friday night over visiting Stevenson University.
 
The win improved the No. 8 nationally ranked Hawks to 10-4 overall and extended its winning streak to three matches. Pat Wing was the catalyst, totaling 20 kills on 31 attempts to hi .645 in the match with three aces and a block.
 
"Leading up to Stevenson, we've been on a down slope in our season," Wing said. "We've been kind of on a low, not playing to our full potential. We've been trying to fix that and turning it around in practice by working hard, sticking together and picking each other up. Today we made serves, played together, worked hard and goes to show what we can accomplish when we do that. We're just kind of trying to get out of this rut right now."
 
Shaffer helped SUNY New Paltz to a 12-6 lead after serving for ace following a kill by Brendan Spulnick. John Ronan then aided in another three-point Hawks run with a kill off a set from Shaffer with Spulnick serving for ace on the next point before Win smashed a kill on an assist by AJ Fitzgerald. The eight-point difference was the largest lead for SUNY New Paltz before Stevenson came back to tighten the set to 23-18, then 24-19 after Dan LaRosa put the Hawks at set point. A serving error officially gave SUNY New Paltz the 1-0 lead heading into the second period.
 
 
The Hawks held all the momentum in the second and stormed out to a 5-0 run and never relinquished the lead from that point forward. They held an eight-point cushion following a kill by Fitzgerald was coupled with a hitting error on Stevenson that brought the score to 17-9. After the Mustangs secured a point at 22-16, SUNY New Paltz finalized the 2-0 lead with a 3-0 run to end the set, as Spulnick recorded another ace and Fitzgerald put down a set-winning kill.
 
"We served well in the first set and we brought it together. We know our downfall is serving in the second set and third set. We get tired — I don't know what it is — so we tried to focus on making our serves in the second set. We knew if we did that we can handle them no problem," Wing said. "Making serves is big for us. It's a big part of our game. If we can serve well, play together and pick each other up there's no one that can beat us."  
At 18-15 in the third, the Hawks answered with a five-point run thanks to Shaffer who served through the stretch. Stevenson committed two attacking errors and a setting error during the stanza with Wing and Ronan the catalysts combining for two kills and a block to earn their team a 23-15 lead.
 
Shaffer fed Ronan in the middle to set up match point and the Mustangs literally stumbled on the final serve, coming up short to hand the Hawks a 25-17 win, securing the straight-set victory. Stevenson dropped to 4-8 with the loss.
 
Shaffer totaled a game-high 31 assists with an ace, while Spulnick added eight kills a game-high four aces with a block and a dig. Ronan finished with six kills on eight attempts with three blocks, while Fitzgerald registered a game-high 10 digs to go along with five kills and an assist.
 
SUNY New Paltz is back in the Hawk Center Saturday, hosting a tri-match against Elms College and Arcadia University. The Hawks are set to face the Blazers at 1 p.m. and the Knights at 5 p.m.
 
"Our focus is going to be high energy, because we are a more talented team than both of them and we tend to play down to other team's levels," added Wing. "Good teams don't do that, so we're going to focus on being high-energy regardless of the score, regardless of what's going on — high-energy, excitement after every point and we should be good."

Post-Game Featuring Pat Wing


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