NEW PALTZ, NY- The SUNY New Paltz women’s volleyball team fell behind late in the third set, but used an 8-3 run to tie the set at 22-22 en route to the three set victory over the Golden Eagles from Brockport. With the win, the Hawks (31-5) advance to the SUNYAC Championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. against the winner of #1 Fredonia and #2 Cortland.
After the game, in an interview with head coach Matt Giufre he said “Dana had a big game for us hitting and blocking and the team was excited for her because she has been working extremely hard in practice. The team used that excitement to gain control of the game.”
In the first set, the Hawks quickly jumped out to a 12-5 advantage only to see the Golden Eagles battle back to cut the Hawks lead at two at 19-17. The Hawks would hold off the Golden Eagles to take the first set 25-22. Brockport was led by Alyssa Fitchette with seven kills in the set and Amanda Yachetta had 10 assists. Mary Cocking led the defense with six digs and Melissa Maxwell chipped in with five.
The Hawks were led by Melinda DiGiovanna (West Hempstead/West Hempstead) and Brittany Coyle (Middletown/Minisink Valley) with three kills a piece. Stephanie Bova (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) handed out eight assists and Loren Crabbe (Ballston Spa/Burnt Hills) led the defense with eight digs in set one.
The Hawks would take set two, 25-18 behind five kills from Stephanie Skrobach (Webster/Webster Schroeder) and Coyle added four. Bova handed out 12 assists and Crabbe had six digs for the defense. After trading points to start the set at 4-4, the Hawks used a 10-4 run to take control of the set. The Hawks would continue to push their lead to eight at 20-12. The Golden Eagles would cut the lead to 22-18, but that was as close as it got as the Hawks scored the final three points for the commanding 2-0 lead.
Heather Carroll and Fitchette each had three kills a piece and Yachetta handed out nine assists. Maxwell would lead the defense with five digs.
In the third and final set, the teams battle to a 9-9 tie before Brockport started to build a lead. The Golden Eagles were able to build a 19-14 lead, but the Hawks scored the next four points, two of the points from Skrobach on back-to-back kills as the Hawks cut the lead to 19-18. Asked about what he (Giufre) said to his team during the timeout “I told the team that we didn’t have to get all the points back at once. All we had to do was chip away slowly, three points at a time.” The Hawks did that exactly and got back into the game. After back-to-back kills from Carroll and Fitchette the Golden Eagles took a 22-20 lead. Alison Kiernan (New Hyde Park/Herricks) led the Hawks back with two straight kills as New Paltz tied the set at 22-22. The Hawks stayed strong and won three of the last four points to advance to the championship game.
Alyssa Fitchette had a game-high 13 kills and Heather Carroll had 11 for Brockport. Kelly Nowak chipped in with eight and Amanda Yachetta had a team-high 29 assists. Mary Cocking led the defense with 16 digs and Melissa Maxwell added 13. Brockport falls to 19-18 overall.
The Hawks were led by Kiernan, Coyle and Skrobach with eight kills each. Dana Kindelmann (Nesconset/Sachem North) added six kills and had a .500 hitting percentage. Bova had a double-double with a game-high 31 assists and 10 digs. Crabbe had a game-high 21 digs and Kelcey Noble (Lake George/Lake George) added 10 digs.
