Men’s Volleyball Beats Brewers, Bullard First All-Time in Aces

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Senior opposite Ryan Bullard (Smithtown, NY) passed former teammate Chris Ganje for the Hawks’ All-Time career ace record. With two aces in today’s 3-1 (30-25, 28-30, 30-21, 30-27) match victory over Vassar College, Bullard extends his career ace total to 134, in only two seasons at SUNY New Paltz.

SUNY New Paltz fought through a slow to start against the Brewers. The Hawks split the first two games with Vassar College (1-14), while combining to hit .146 as a team. SUNY New Paltz won the first game 30-25, before dropping the second 30-28. The Hawks began to pick up the momentum in game thee with a 30-21 win on their way to a 30-27 win in game four.

In pursuit of the ace record Bullard collected his sixth double-double performance of the season, totaling a career-high 22 kills and tallying 11 digs. Freshman setter Matt Weingarten (East Moriches, NY) has continued to pile up the numbers in this rookie campaign. Weingarten is now only the second Hawk to record 1,000 assists in a season. Accumulating 53 assists this afternoon, Weingarten raised his season assist total to exactly 1,000. Weingarten added 18 digs defenseivley, recieveing help from junior outside hitter Jeff Lee (Clifton Park, NY) and sophomore libero Pedro Medina (Brentwood, NJ). Lee provided SUNY New Paltz (21-9) with 12 digs and five blocks, while Medina collected 20 digs to secure the Hawks’ single season high in digs with 322. Middle blockers, junior Josh Spiro (Island Park, NY) and senior Greg Jackson (Central Square, NY) recorded 11 and ten kills, respectively, Jackson totaled six blocks.

The SUNY New Paltz men’s volleyball team will host East Stroudsburg in their final home game of the 2006 season on Wednesday, March 29, at 7:00 pm.