Hawks Advance to ECAC Finals

ROCHESTER, NY — The SUNY New Paltz Hawks defeated the second seed RIT Tigers 3-2 on Saturday in the semifinals of the ECAC Championship Tournament. The Hawks will face the winner of the University of Rochester/SUNY Oneonta semifinal match-up at 5 pm tonight.
SUNY New Paltz claimed game one 30-25. The score was tied 17-17 before the Hawks went on a four point run behind the serving of senior Franchesca Rodriguez to open up the game. In game two the Hawks won a 30-24 decision behind the blocking of senior Kate Roche.
In the third game the Hawks were up 16-11 before the Tigers tied the game at 18-18 and took the lead to 29-25 before the Hawks battled back to tie the game 29-29. It was a back and fourth fight before the Tigers won 34-32. The Tigers took the fourth game 30-24. The score was tied 15-15 before RIT went on a four point run to make it 19-15. The Hawks soon made their own run to even the game again but were outscored 11-5 to end the game.
SUNY New Paltz dominated the fifth game in a convincing 15-4 showing. The Hawks pushed off of first year Lauren Hogue’s serves and take a quick 6-0 lead and controlled play the rest of the game.
Senior Kim Clouston led the Hawks with 19 kills, 14 digs and Rodriguez finished with 15 kills, 13 digs. Roche totaled 10 blocks, eight kills and first year Brittany Coyle added nine blocks, eight kills. Sophomore Amanda Brown recorded 10 kills, 19 digs and classmate Nicole Mercanadte finished with 39 digs. Junior Katie Becofsky handed out 51 assists for the Hawks.