New Paltz, NY — A top-20 win eluded the State University of New York at New Paltz all season as it began the year with a young group and one of the hardest schedules in the country.
 
Friday night in the Hawk Center — led by their underclassmen — the Hawks not only clinched their first victory over a nationally ranked opponent but did so in dominating fashion earning a sweep of No. 19 Benedictine, 25-23, 25-14, 25-20.
 
"We lost to some really good teams this year so far, so we came in with high expectations," said SUNY New Paltz freshman opposite Michael Spiegel. "We have a young team and a lot of new guys who are developing so the expectation is always to win, but when we face really good guys like them we kind of just have to come out and play our game. That was our mentality the whole time was just to play our game, be ourselves and have fun while we do it."
 
Spiegel earned the start at opposite, as Hawks coach Radu Petrus opted to go with the hot-hand of his freshman lefty over two-time All-American and fifth-year senior Pat Wing, while also starting all first and second-year players, including freshman setter Matt Marusza, freshman outside Graham Labeck and sophomore transfer Daniel Shanley. The quartet propelled the SUNY New Paltz offense, which hit an impressive .384 on the night.
 
"My role coming in was just to be a good teammate, just learn all I can from Pat," Spiegel said. "Pat is an amazing guy. He's taught me so much about how to play in college, how to hold myself accountable, how to be a leader and I just feel like... him just giving me reassurance and giving me confidence, it's just makes it work and it makes me feel good. I know that at the same time we're all just teammates. We all just want to win, and we've been winning."

 
 
The Hawks never trailed in the opening set after Marusza served through three straight points and capped the stretch with his first of three aces of the match. The score was tied six times midway through the set, including at 18-18 before a 4-0 run gave SUNY New Paltz the momentum. Marusza once again served through the run, which was highlighted by a block from reinging UVC Co-Rookie of the Year Krish Jain and Shanley before another ace extended the lead to 22-18. Jain pushed SUNY New Paltz to set point after smashing a free ball down the middle and Spiegel ultimately sealed it on a pass by Labeck to Marusza who registered the assist as Spiegel hammered the ball from the right side for the winning point.
 
Once again, the Hawks never fell behind in the second set and rolled to a 24-13 lead thanks to an ace by freshman Matt Kudlinski. Jain closed out the 2-0 lead off an assist by Marusza.  
The third set was tighter midway through the stanza, as a four-point run gave the Eagles their first lead of the game at 14-13. A serving error ended the run, but they quickly sided out with a kill and extended their lead to 16-14 after another kill. Benedictine maintained the two-point advantage until Shanley instigated a 4-0 run to help SUNY New Paltz re-gain the lead. Kudlinksi came off the bench and stepped up once more, serving through the run forcing three-straight attacking errors by the Eagles with Jain, Shanley and Marusza all registering a block assist during the stanza. A serving error allowed Benedictine to side out, but momentum was fully swung to the Hawks who scored another four unanswered including a highlight play by Shanley which ignited the home crowd.
 
The Eagles got their hands on an attempt by Spiegel that nearly fell for a block, but Marusza hustled and dove to keep the play alive with Labeck there to continue the rally. The ball eventually came back over with Marusza setting Shanley on the outside who rose up and smashed a ball in the face of his opponent for the kill to set up match point. Jain put an end to an early night two points later, as he beat his blocker to finalize the 3-0 sweep.
 
Spiegel led all hitters with a game-high 15 kills, while adding an assist, an ace and five digs for a game-high 16.5 points. Shanley followed with 11 kills, hitting an efficient .688 on the night, while registering two assists, two blocks and six digs. Labeck finished with 10 kills, hitting .412 on 17 attempts, while totaling two aces and six digs. Jain tallied eight kills, hitting .462 with a game-high four blocks, while Marusza had an excellent night facilitating the offense, as he finished with 35 assists, while registering three aces, a block and a dig.
 
"It's tough to have six new guys come in this year with seven new guys coming in last year and get the team in order and the chemistry together, but I feel like so far, we've done a really good job, and we do that through practice and working hard," added Spiegel. "But yeah, I think so far we've found really good chemistry and a good balance and it's fun. The team dynamic — we're rowdy. I love it. It's awesome."
 
SUNY New Paltz returns to the Hawk Center Saturday to host a tri-match against SUNY Poly and Hunter College. The Hawks will open up the day against the Wildcats at noon before concluding the tri-match against the visiting Hawks at 4 p.m.
 
"We're ready to play," said Spiegel. "We can play these two games right now if we wanted to. The guys are all warm, we're all ready to play so I think the games tomorrow will be really fun."

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