New Paltz, NY — In its final home match of the regular season, the State University of New York at New Paltz made quick work of No. 7 NYU Wednesday night. The Hawks (19-8 overall, 5-1 UVC) rolled to a straight set sweep over the Violets (12-7, 2-3) and ensured the No. 2 seed in the United Volleyball Conference Tournament.
 
"It was a good UVC matchup, trying to lock down that No. 2 seed so we can get the bye and the last game at home here for the seniors, so we just wanted to really put an emphasis on stopping some of their key players and we did a good job," said SUNY New Paltz freshman libero Luke Hofer.
 
The Hawks held the edge in points (44-41), blocks (7-5), digs (39-31) and hitting percentage (.288-.189). Brendan Spulnick led the way with 10 kills on 21 attempts, hitting .333 with three blocks and six digs and a team-leading 12.5 points. He also made history in the match, tying the program's all-time ace record, tallying his 199th career ace in the third set to join 2017 alum Steven Woessner as the program's all-time ace leader.
 
The first set was back-and-forth, totaling 11 ties, including at 22-all after a service error by Pat Wing, but NYU returned the favor with a service error to give the Hawks back serve, which was followed by an attacking error to push SUNY New Paltz to set point. Spulnick then collected his team a 1-0 lead, slamming a kill on a set by Kyle Shaffer to earn the 25-23 first set win.
 
 
The second was tied at 23 before Krish Jain pushed the Hawks to set point on a kill off an assist from Shaffer. Dan LaRosa lofted the ensuing serve in and the point ended in favor of SUNY New Paltz as the Violets hit long for another attacking error to extend the lead, 2-0 in the match.  
SUNY New Paltz took all the momentum into the third and jumped out in front 22-15 on a 6-1 run. LaRosa served through three-straight points in the run, registering an ace and helping in two attacking errors with Shaffer tallying a kill off an assist by Hofer to get the 4-0 stretch started and aiding in a seven-point lead. NYU won back two points to cut the score, 22-17 but another attacking error allowed the Hawks to side out. Coach Radu Petrus entered freshman Bennett Petrik to serve, and the West Seneca, NY native came in and served for ace to get his team to match point. He served in the winning point as well, as Jain and Shaffer got up for the game-winning double block to secure the 3-0 victory.
 
Shaffer was the beneficiary for SUNY New Patz, totaling 26 assists to go along with four kills, three blocks and three digs. Hofer recorded a career-high 12 digs, as he got the start at libero with LaRosa starting at outside and finishing with two aces, a block and eight digs. Jain was a perfect 5-for-5 on hitting attempts, while adding three blocks. John Ronan followed with four kills on 11 attempts, with one assist, three blocks and three digs.
 
"I just want to help my team out the best I can with AJ [Fitzgerald] out," Hofer said. "It's a little bit of an unfortunate circumstance, but Dan is another libero so it's easy to do when I know I have that kind of support next to me."
 
The Hawks close out the regular season Saturday on the road at St. Joseph's-Long Island at 1 p.m. before entering the UVC Tournament, starting April 15.  

Post-Game Featuring Luke Hofer


***********************
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.