Pittsford, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz came back from two sets down to earn a five set United Volleyball Conference victory over No. 8 St. John Fisher College, 21-24, 25-27, 25-20, 25-14, 18-16 Saturday.
After dropping the first set, the No. 11 nationally ranked Hawks (18-8 overall, 4-1 UVC) worked back to tie the second at 21 following back-to-back kills by
Krish Jain and
Dan LaRosa. The two teams then traded points until a service error followed by an ace from
Kyle Shaffer gave SUNY New Paltz set point at 25-24. The Cardinals countered though with a kill by Josh Bigford to side out then consecutive attacking errors by the Hawks sealed the 2-0 lead as St. John Fisher captured the extended, 27-25 win.
The tight match gave SUNY New Paltz life in the third after trailing midway through at 15-12. Jain helped the Hawks win back serve following a kill on a set by Shaffer with Jain and LaRosa going up for a block on the next point. They finally tied the score at 17 following a solo block by
John Ronan. SUNY New Paltz then scored on seven of the next nine points to take a 24-19 lead and after a serving error by Spulnick, the Cardinals gave the third to the Hawks on a hitting error to seal the third, 25-20.
SUNY New Paltz rolled in the fourth, taking a large 20-11 lead following a 10-1 run with Shaffer serving through most of the stretch, while tallying four assists along the way.
Pat Wing swung for three-straight kills to get the Hawks to set point at 24-13 and ultimately Shaffer went back to Wing for the set-winning kill to push the match into a fifth.
The final stanza was tight with SUNY New Paltz taking an 8-7 lead at the switch followed by a three-point run on kills by Shaffer and
Teddy Teraszkiewicz. The two teams traded service errors and attacking errors, which tied the match at 10. Shaffer went to middle
John Ronan on the following point to give his team the lead before feeding Wing on the right side to push the score, 12-10 in favor of the Hawks. A timeout by the Cardinals led to a service error by Spulnick and then an attacking error from Ronan, which tied the score at 12, but Ronan pushed SUNY New Paltz back ahead, 13-12 before smashing another kill off an assist by Spulnick to give his team match point at 14-12, which followed another timeout by St. John Fisher.
The Cardinals used the stoppage of play to regroup and following a serve in by SUNY New Paltz's
Mike Kilinski, Jake Baker helped his team side out with a kill. Bigford and Gavin Newman followed up with kills to give the hosts match point at 15-14, but a service error gave the Hawks life. LaRosa fed Spulnick on the outside for a kill to give the Hawks a 16-15 lead before St. John Fisher tied the match one last time on a swing by Bigford. Baker served the ball in and ended the point on an error to give SUNY New Paltz match point at 17-16. LaRosa served a good ball in on the ensuing point, and Shaffer ended the match with one final assist to Wing to close out the set, 18-16.
Shaffer led the way for the Hawks. He set a career-high in assists with 55, while adding a team-high two aces to go along with two blocks, 13 digs and five kills for eight points. Spulnick finished with a game-high 19 kills, hitting .394 with 14 digs. Wing followed with 18 kills, three blocks and nine digs. Ronan also set a career-high, finishing with 15 kills, hitting .500 on 24 attempts with a game-high five blocks and two digs.
SUNY New Paltz closes out UVC competition Wednesday when it hosts No. 9 NYU in the Hawk Center at 7 p.m. for its Green Out for Mental Health Awareness Game.
*********************
To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on
Twitter at
@nphawks,
Instagram and
Facebook at
@newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our
Youtube channel,
New Paltz Hawks.
