New Paltz Defeats Oneonta 3-0, Advances to SUNYAC Volleyball Championship Game
BROCKPORT, N.Y. – With Friday evening's 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-12) victory over Catskill Cup Rival, No. 2 seeded SUNY Oneonta, the No. 3 seeded women's volleyball team at the State University of New York at New Paltz advanced to the program's fourth-straight SUNYAC championship match.
The Hawks (19-13 overall), the No. 10 ranked team in the New York Region, avenged a regular season loss to Oneonta (L, 3-1), which decided the No. 2 & No. 3 seeds for the tournament. New Paltz has now played in in 12-straight SUNYAC Tournament semifinal matches and has now advanced eight times to the title game.
New Paltz will battle the winner of No. 1 seed, host Brockport (30-3 overall), and No. 5 SUNY Geneseo (17-14 overall) on Saturday at 4 p.m. as the Hawks look to capture their third SUNYAC title overall (2014, 2009) and second in three years. With the victory, New Paltz currently trails Oneonta in the Catskill Cup standings, 11-8, through Nov. 5.
For the match, five players tallied at least five kills for the Hawks in a balanced offensive attack. Senior outside hitter Anna Paulik (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) tallied a team-high eight kills while providing 12 digs. Senior outside hitter Morgan Roessler (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) enjoyed seven kills, seven digs, five block assists and three aces while senior middle hitter Brittany Tyack (Commack, NY/Commack) notched seven kills and two digs.
Freshman right side Meghan Keyes (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) floored six kills and classmate Maddie Van Pelt (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central) provided five kills and two aces. Junior setter Maddie Zwickl(Chester, NY/Warwick Valley) registered a double-double with a match-high 32 assists and 10 digs while junior libero Veronica Matedero (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge) led the defense with 13 digs.
The first set didn't start out as planned for New Paltz as the Hawks fell behind 6-1 and again 12-5, prompting head coach Matt Giufre to call a timeout. Coming out of the break, New Paltz went on a 7-4 spurt and enjoyed another 7-2 run to knot the contest at 19-19 thanks to a couple kills from Paulik. The Hawks grabbed a 21-20 lead and were led by Roessler down the stretch as the senior provided two kills and a block assist to hand New Paltz the come-from-behind set one victory.
Again, the Red Dragons led out of the gates in the second stanza, putting New Paltz in an early 9-5 hole. After falling behind 12-8, the Hawks were able to put together a 7-2 run to claim a slim 15-14 lead. Taking advantage of two Oneonta errors, New Paltz went ahead 18-17 but surrendered three straight Red Dragon points to go down, 20-18 and take a timeout. Following the intermission, the Hawks played possessed and rattled off six unanswered points to take a 24-20 lead and would take the set thanks to a Keyes kill.
It seemed that the Hawks figured out Oneonta in the third set as this period was a blowout after a close start. New Paltz went ahead 11-6 before the Red Dragons crept to within two, 12-10. After this point, however, the Hawks caught fire and outscored Oneonta 13-2 down the stretch to close out the contest, eliminate the Red Dragons and earn a trip into the 2016 SUNYAC Championship match on Saturday, awaiting either the top-seeded Golden Eagles or No. 5 seed Knights.
