Poughkeepsie, N.Y. - Hunter College women's volleyball earned an exciting victory on Wednesday evening against Vassar College, falling in the first two sets (24-26, 19-25) and then coming back to win the next three (25-16, 26-24, 17-15).

The Hawks improved to 7-9 overall, winning their third non-conference match of the season, while the Brewers own a mark of 4-12.

Three Hawks found double-digit kills as the team held the Brewers to a .158 hitting percentage to get the win.

Hunter dropped the first set after leading 23-19 and allowing Vassar to score four-straight to tie it up. Mariam Ouattara got a kill for the Hawks to make the score 24-23, but the Brewers found three more points to take it 26-24.

Vassar got a commanding lead in the second 17-9 as the Hawks struggled to catch up. A kill from Rodica Nedea and a service ace from Ariana Silva helped the Purple and Gold stay in the set until the Brewers finished it off, 25-19.

The Hawks were not deterred going into the third as they immediately went on a run, finding kills from Alexa Sayson and Curran Murray for a 13-7 edge. Hunter really took control when they scored five-straight off points from Silva, Sunghee Cho and Isabelle Lawrence to lead, 18-9. The Hawks took the last three points and a service ace from Silva was the deciding factor, allowing Hunter to win the set, 25-16.

The fourth set became a battle, featuring six tied scores at the beginning. Vassar was able to find an advantage and kept it, leading by as much as seven points (20-13). The Purple and Gold continued to trail, but got back into the game off a 7-2 run to make the score 22-20.

Things did not look good for the Hawks when Vassar posted two-straight kills to lead 24-20 and needed just one more point to win the match. From there Hunter changed the momentum and took over the game. The Hawks scored the last six points of the set to win it, 26-24. Kylie Hurst posted four kills during the run and Silva recorded two service aces to lead Hunter and send the match into the fifth set.

Hunter got a 6-2 edge in the fifth before the Brewers registered seven-straight points for a three-point lead. The Hawks managed to tie it up at 12, led by the efforts of Murray, who recorded a kill and two service aces in a matter of seconds.

Vassar got two more points to make it 14-12 and match-point, but Hunter did not quit as Hurst and Kendra Moore each scored to tie it up again. The Hawks finished out the match on a 3-1 run, getting a kill from Moore, forcing a Vassar attack error and then finally finding a block from Justine Smith and Lawrence to win the match, 17-15.

Hurst led the team by posting a double-double of 14 kills and 15 digs, adding two service aces to her stat line. Moore followed with 11 kills and just one error for a team-high .417 hitting percentage. Lawrence chipped in ten kills to lead the Hawks to the victory, while Sayson recorded seven. Smith paced the offense with 32 assists as the setter.

Defensively, Cho found 28 digs to guide the Hawks, and Sofia Caradonna tallied 14 in the win.

The Hawks return to action on Thursday when they host NYU at 6 p.m. at the Sportsplex.