Union, NJ — The State University of New York at New Paltz closed out the Clash at Kean Tournament Saturday, splitting its two matches against Stevenson University and Hunter College.
 
The Hawks were on a three-game winning streak until dropping the opening match of the afternoon against the Mustangs in straight sets (25-17, 25-23, 25-19), but bounced back with a four-set victory over the opposing Hawks of Hunter (25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-16).
 
SUNY New Paltz was out-matched against Stevenson, as the Mustangs had the upper hand in nearly every statistical category including hitting percentage (.452-.273), points (58-45), kills (46-38), aces (6-4), blocks (6-3), assists (43-34) and digs (30-26).
 
After losing in a lopsided first set, SUNY New Paltz came back to tie the second stanza at 22 following a kill by AJ Fitzgerald. Stevenson countered with a 3-0 run to get to set point following a block on Hawks middle blocker Mike Handell. Fitzgerald closed the gap and earned back serve for his team following a kill off an assist from Matt Marusza, but Stevenson closed out with a kill on the next point to go up, 2-0.
 
SUNY New Paltz was down, 20-11 in the third but rallied midway through to get within four on a 5-0 run with Christopher Larkin serving through the stretch and tallying an ace, while Pat Wing and Fitzgerald combed for three kills before Bennett Perik capped the run with a kill. Marusza tallied assists on each of the points in the rally. The momentum stalled though, as the Mustangs earned match point at 24-19 following a kill by Tim Flanagan and then closed the game out on a kill by Anthony Pezzino.
 
Wing led the team with 11 kills on 26 attempts, while adding six digs. Fitzgerald followed with seven kills, an ace and four digs. Marusza totaled 26 assists, three kills, an ace and a block.  
The Hawks served well in the second game of the afternoon, which helped get them an early 2-0 lead over Hunter. After dropping the third, they rolled through the fourth and held match point at 25-15 after going up by as many as nine at 20-11. Krish Jain sealed the win off an assist by Marusza as he swung for the game-winning kill to close out the four-set win.
 
SUNY New Paltz was efficient offensively, hitting .352 as a team and totaled eight aces. Six different Hawks tallied a service ace with Petrik and Matt Kudlniski each having two. Jain was the catalyst though in the match, as he finished with eight kills on 10 attempts to hit at an .800 clip, while totaling a team-leading seven blocks (six assisted) with three digs. Daniel Shanley registered a team-most nine kills with an ace and seven digs. Matt Teplanksy followed with eight kills, an ace, three blocks and a dig. Marusza facilitated the offense and finished with 35 assists.
 
SUNY New Paltz returns to the Hawk Center next weekend when it hosts its first tri-match of the season against New Jersey City and Stevens Saturday.

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