New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York New Paltz opened up its first home match of the 2025 season with a quick 3-0 sweep of visiting Mount Saint Mary's College Friday night to begin the annual Hawks Invitational Tournament.
The Hawks improved to 4-0 on the year, while the Knights dropped to 1-2 with both teams returning to the Hawk Center Saturday in a four-game slate of day two of the Hawks Invitational, which will also feature Union and Russell Sage College.
SUNY New Paltz controlled the first two sets, out-scoring MSMC 50-20 in the opening stanzas to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Lola Konopa helped the Hawks end the first. The junior middle caught the Knights out of position, nearly placing a ball into the back corner for the kill but the visitors scrambled to keep the play alive ultimately leading to a hitting error that pushed the lead to 21-10.
Reagan Dyba and Konopa followed up with back-to-back kills to get to set point with Konopa ending a long rally with a kill off a set from
Kim Braun to cap an 8-0 run, served through by
Lexi Stragalas, to win the set, 25-10.
The second period didn't last very long, as the Hawks got out to an 11-2 start before another 8-0 stretch brought the commanding lead to 22-8.
Jordyn Lewis served through the run, tallying three aces along the way before serving into the net to break up the surge. An attacking error eventually put SUNY New Paltz back at set point with Braun capping the second with an ace to capture a 25-10 win for her team.
MSMC regrouped in the third and held a 20-14 lead in the period. A kill by freshman middle
Maddy Casto allowed SUNY New Paltz to side out, but the Knights answered with two-straight points on a kill and ace to bring their lead to 22-15. However, the point was the last the visitors scored the rest of the night, as a service error gave Hawks libero
Courtney Meyer the ball with the junior serving 10-straight points for the win, including three-straight aces at 23, 24 and 25-22.
SUNY New Paltz dominated in every statistical category, out-hitting MSMC .284 to -.010 with the Knights having their best hitting percentage at .233 with 10 kills in the third. The Hawks ultimately out-scored the visitors 53-24 and tallied more kills (35-15), aces (15-7), blocks (3-2), assists (29-10) and digs (53-37).
Dyba in just two sets led the team offensively with seven points off seven kills on 12 attempts, hitting .583. Meyer followed with six points off six aces while adding a team-high eight digs. Konopa also finished with six points, recording six kills on 10 attempts for a healthy .600 hitting percentage while adding two digs. Braun added a team-high eight assists with one kill, two aces and four digs, while Stragalas finished with four kills, five assists, an ace, a block and seven digs.
SUNY New Paltz is back in action Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. against the Gators before closing out the Hawks Invitational at 5:45 p.m. against the Garnet Chargers.
Game Highlights (video by Aiden Duran (@duran.crt))
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