New York, NY – Freshman outside hitter Pablo Oliveira (Brazil/Newcomers) hit a team high 18 kills and had 18 digs helping the Hunter Hawks defeat the SUNY-New Paltz Hawks 3-2 (35-33, 30-26, 27-30, 27-30, 15-7) in men's volleyball action Thursday night at the Hunter Sportsplex.

All five games were extremely competitive as the two teams traded leads left and right and provided the fans with some spectacular hitting and rallies. In the opening contest, Hunter was able to steal away a tough 35-33 win and then seemed to be on their way to a three game sweep after taking the second and opened the third with an early lead. However, New Paltz began to surge in the third game, finding a way to stay two points ahead of the Hawks and would eventually earn a 30-27 victory. They would have a repeat performance in the fourth game to push the match to the deciding fifth game. Hunter owned the fifth game, taking a 7-4 lead and never looked back.

Hunter had four individuals finished with ten or more kills, lead by Oliveira and freshman outside hitter Wojciech Jakubiak (Poland, NY/Grover Cleveland) who in his Hunter debut slammed 15 kills and had four total blocks, two solo. Sophomore setter Zacarias Ripoll (Puerto Plata, D.R./John F. Kennedy) had a season high 53 assists and 12 digs in the victory.

Junior outside hitter Ryan Huberty (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) recorded a match high 19 kills for New Paltz, while sophomore opposite Alex Jackson (Central Square, NY/Paul V. Moore) added 17 kills and sophomore setter Stephen Pendleton (Oneida, NY/Oneida) finished with 39 assists and seven kills.

Hunter now improves to 3-0 on the season and will head to Hoboken, NJ on Saturday and Sunday to take part in the Stevens Invitational. On Saturday, the Hawks open up with a match against #7 MIT at 4:00 p.m. and then will face #4 Carthage College at 8:00 p.m.