Mahwah, NJ — The State University of New York at New Paltz finished the night with a sweep of Ramapo College Thursday surging from a come-from-behind third-set victory. 
 
The Hawks (7-3 overall) ended the day with a 3-0 win, defeating the hosting Roadrunners, 25-20, 25-18, and a tight 26-24 final set. 
 
SUNY New Paltz started off strong in the first set, never letting up its lead, reaching its largest lead of the period at 18-10 before the hosts started to gain some momentum, creeping to a four-point margin towards the end of the set. 
 
The Hawks started off the second strong with a kill by John Ronan, assisted by Kyle Shaffer. The set started off close with one to two point differentials, with SUNY New Paltz maintaining the lead through its entirety.  Mike Handell had himself a set, throwing down three straight kills to finish off the period with a score of 25-18. Handell finished the match with four kills on seven attempts, hitting .429, an efficient season high. 
The third set started slowly for the Hawks, with two quick points by the Roadrunners and some miscommunication errors, but it did not take SUNY New Paltz long to regain momentum, with Carter Lotz crushing a kill to put the Hawks on the board. SUNY New Paltz went on a 4-0 run, including an ace from Teddy Teraszkiewcz. Pat Wing demonstrated his offensive dominance with four straight kills to light a fire for the Hawks, bringing the game down to a one-point differential. Immediately following, Teraszkiewcz hammered a kill to tie the set up. Tensions arose, with points going back and forth, Ramapo went on a three-point lead. With the score of 17-20, Handell threw down a kill to break the run. The Roadrunners answered back with two points to make the score 18-22. When the score hit 19-23, Hawks coach Radu Petrus called a timeout to regain focus and following the timeout, SUNY New Paltz went on a 3-0 run closing the gap to a 22-24 game. Ramapo's Chris Moren suffered a serving error, and Adam Brawn took advantage of the momentum to tie up the game with a powerful kill.  
 
Tied at 24, SUNY New Paltz returned from a timeout with high stakes entering the remainder of the third set. Wing smacked down an electric kill to bring the energy and move forward with a score of 25-24. Teraszkiewcz then fired a bullet serve at match point following the intense kill for a steady rally before Krish Jain and Shaffer laid down a powerful and cohesive block to win the third set and match for the Hawks. 
 
As a team, SUNY New Paltz hit .392 for the night, compared to the Roadrunner's .342. Wing led the team with 19 kills, while hitting .389 on 36 attempts along with one dig. Brendan Spulnick also held an offensive presence, with nine kills while hitting .333 on 18 attempts along with three aces and five digs. Shaffer quarterbacked the offense with 40 assists, two kills and six digs for the match.

SUNY New Paltz will hit the road to Dallas, PA on Saturday to begin their Misericordia Tri-Match where they will face No. 6 Messiah University and Misericordia University at 1 and 3 p.m., respectively.

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