New York, NY - The men's volleyball team hosted New Jersey City University and #1 Springfield College earlier this afternoon in a non-conference tri-match. The Hawks swept the Gothic Knights in the first match, 3-0 but were blanked in the final match of the afternoon against the top ranked team in the country, Springfield. The split pushes the Purple and Gold out to 8-3 overall, 3-0 in conference play.

NJCU Recap
Benjamin Crusinberry led the offense with a game high 13 kills while Blake Hogan and Steven Tarquinio each chipped in with eight kills a piece. Setter Nicolas Sanchez did his part with a game high 22 assists in the win. As a team, the Hawks posted seven blocks, 34 assists and tallied 35 kills while making seven less errors than their counterparts and posting a hitting percentage.053 higher than NJCU.

The first set was a close affair that featured six lead changes. Hunter took an early 6-3 lead but quickly found themselves behing 9-7. Through the efforts of a kill and service ace from Tarquinio, and a kill from Crusinberry coupled with an NJCU attack error, Hunter regained the lead. The Gothic Knights reached the 21 point summit first, but the Purple and Gold ended the set on a 6-2 run, ending on a Tarquinio kill.

The second set was played more closely than the first as each team exchanged points and remained close to one another throughout. Knotted at 21-21, two NJCU errors gave Hunter a two-point advantage as the Hawks threatened to take a 2-0 set lead. Once again, getting some help from their counterparts, the Purple and Gold closed the second set, 25-22 on two visitor errors. In the final set, despite Hunter leading the way, the game was tied on eight occasions with the final one coming at the 15-15 mark. Three straight NJCU points in the latter stages of the game threatened to push it to a fourth set as they closed the gap to 22-21, but a Crusinberry kill and two Gothic Knights errors sealed the deal for the Hunter win.

#1 Springfield Recap
The Hawks struggled on the offensive end as they tallied just 16 kills and were led by Crusinberry's seven and Hogan's five. Sanchez tallied eight assists while Joseph Muir chalked up nine digs.

Springfield managed four seperate runs of three straight points which helped to build a 20-9 advantage in the first. Hunter managed just two more points before the Pride reached the 25 point mark. The Hawks took a 3-1 lead in the first and remained close through the initial ten points when it was knotted at 10-10. However, a kill by the Pride's Greg Woods opened up a five point run which ultimately proved enough to keep the Hawks away. Despite putting together a late three-point run, Springfield closed the second with four unanswered points to make it a 2-0 affair. In the third and final set, the Purple and Gold came back from being down 4-1 to tying it at 8-8. However, they were overpowered down the home stretch, ultimately falling 25-16.

The Hawks are back in aciton on Monday, February 15 when they take on Baruch at 9am and Lehman to follow at 1pm in a CUNYAC multimatch hosted by Baruch.