By: NYU Athletics

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's volleyball team (15-3, 3-1 UVC) played M.I.T. (15-4, 3-1 UVC) Friday night in a well fought contest, but the Hawks came away triumphant from the United Volleyball Conference game on the Engineers' homecourt.
 
SUNY New Paltz won, 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23) and extended its winning streak to five.
 
In the first set the Hawks had a hard time getting started, as the Engineers led for most of the set. The home crowd really pushed its team, propelling them to a win constantly.
 
SUNY New Paltz sophomore opposite Brendan Spulnick slammed a kill off an attempted block to bring the Hawks to within two towards the end of the set, at 18-16.
 
SUNY New Paltz senior captain Aaron Carrk stayed alert after having a kill attempt turned back, and anticipated the next set to send the ball in the back of the court and score. The Hawks remained down 19-18 and 21-20. A missed spike by the Engineers tied the set at 21 all. An M.I.T. block gave the home team a 24-22 advantage, forcing a SUNY New Paltz timeout. An attack error by the Hawks then gave the Engineers the set, 25-22.  
In the second set the teams were tied at 18-18, before a Hawks run with a Matthew Grace ace pushed SUNY New Paltz ahead, 21-19. Hawks sophomore opposite Chris Shanley then edged ahead with a 24-23 lead off a kill on the left side, causing the Engineers to call a timeout. Out of the same timeout, Carrk aced from behind the line and brought SUNY New Paltz level taking the set, 25-23.
 
The Hawks edged the Engineers 19-15 in the third, with a senior middle blocker Nick O'Malley kill and another to extend to 20-16. Shanley scored for SUNY New Paltz to win the set, 25-21.
 
The fourth set was tied at 11-11 with O'Malley getting another kill. The teams were equal again at 13-13. SUNY New Paltz led 20-17 after a kill by Tevin Skeete. The set was tied later at 22-22 after servers exchanged errors. An error hurt the Engineers going down two points, and Carrk finalized the set at 25-23 assisted by Grace.
 
The teams committed 21 attack errors each, SUNY New Paltz recording 47 kills and M.I.T. 46. The New York team hit a .236 percentage and recorded 4 aces on the night.
 
Carrk had 17 kills, and Shanley tallied 10 on the night. O'Malley and Spulnick followed with eight and seven kills respectively.
 
SUNY New Paltz faces No. 2 NYU next on March 11 at the Hawk Center.