Geneva NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz continued its three game road trip with its first ever regular season meeting in Geneva Saturday, losing to nationally ranked No. 14 Hobart College in the Bristol Gym, in four sets (23-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-25).
 
SUNY New Paltz got the match going against the Herons with a kill by AJ Fitzgerald with an assist from Matt Marusza to gain a 1-0 lead before extending to 3-0 when Pat Wing made a block. An attack error by Hobart led the Hawks to a 5-2 lead. The Herons went on a 4-0 run and took a 6-5 lead. After that three point lead for the Hawks, there was only one other lead of three points, when Hobart led 17-14. The match went back and forth with both sides tying it up or leading by one point. SUNY New Paltz was up 23-22 when a service error by Wing, and two kills secured Hobart a 25-23 first set victory.
 
In the second set, the Hawks found themselves down 1-0. Like the first set, SUNY New Paltz went on a 3-0 run, as a service error gave them an 8-4 lead. A five point advantage was the highest the Hawks were up by in the second set when an attack error by the Herons put them up 21-16. At set point up 24-19, Wing got the win for SUNY New Paltz with a kill, assisted by Marusza to tie the match at one.  
The Hawks found themselves down 2-0 to start the third set, and had no lead at any point, as Hobart went on a 5-0 run to make it 15-9. Down 16-10, Patrick Soulias and Michael Spiegel came off the bench to try and shrink the deficit, along with fellow freshmen Graham Labeck and Matt Kudlinksi. Labek got a kill to cut the score to 24-15 Hobart. The third one was one to move past as the Hawks lost 25-15 and were down 2-1.
 
Kudlinksi, Soulias, Labeck, Speigel, and Daniel Shanley stayed and came on to start the fourth set, as the Hawks looked to tie it to go to a fifth. They found themselves down 4-0 to start the fourth, when Krish Jain got a kill assisted by Marusza. Down 6-1, Christopher Larkin looked to get closer, as he tallied a kill, with another assist from Marusza. Down seven, which was the biggest deficit all game, SUNY New Paltz scored back to back kills from Fitzgerald and Marusza, to make it 11-6. In the end, the Hawks never led in this set either as they lost 25-15
 
Wing tallied 17 kills and six digs, Fitzgerald had seven kills and two blocks, and Jain registered seven kills and two aces to round out the Hawks top offensive leaders.
 
SUNY New Paltz continues the final game of their road trip Sunday at Elmira, taking on the Soaring Eagles at 1 p.m.


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