New York, N.Y. - Hunter College men's volleyball got a five-set win over #3 nationally ranked New Paltz University on Saturday, going 2-0 in the tri-match after defeating Lasell College earlier in the day. The win over New Paltz goes down in history as the highest ranked team that the Hunter men's volleyball program has ever defeated.

The Hawks improved to 4-3 overall this season, while the Lasers dropped to 2-5 and New Paltz is now 7-2 this year.

Hunter started the day off with a three-set win over Lasell with scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-21. Blake Hogan and Qendrim Shala led the Hawks with 11 kills each in the win, while Alec Helford posted 37 assists. Shala registered a team-high 14 digs in the match.

The Purple and Gold then took down New Paltz in their second match of the day, handing them just their second loss of the 2019 season. The Hawks took the first set with a score of 25-21, dropped the second 25-20, won the third 25-22, fell in the fourth 25-20 and closed it out with a 15-10 fifth-set victory.

With the score tied at 16 in the first set, the Hawks went on a 5-1 run, highlighted by two service aces from Helford. The Hawks finished it off with a kill from Hogan to win the first 25-21.

New Paltz started the second set strong, jumping out to a 10-4 advantage. Hunter capitalized on NPU errors to eventually trail by just three points, 20-17, but New Paltz outscored them 5-3 in the remaining points to take it 25-20 and tie the match.

NPU once again took the early lead in the third and then led for most of the set, making the score 16-11. From there the Purple and Gold went to work, finding a kill from Michael Jazgarski to spark a 7-0 run for the Hawks. A service ace from Christian Maisonet allowed Hunter to pull ahead 18-16, but NPU tied it back up at 20. Hogan recorded another kill to put the Hawks back up and the team managed to hold onto the lead, winning 25-22.

The score was close in the fourth until New Paltz scored six-straight for a 14-10 edge. Hunter stayed closed, not allowing NPU to lead by more than five, but couldn't catch up in time to stop them from getting the 25-20 win and tying up the match again.

New Paltz took the first point of the fifth but Hogan responded with a kill to make it 1-1. The Hawks forced four NPU errors over the next five points and then Jazgarski recorded two kills to help them lead 7-3. New Paltz caught back up to trail by just two points, 11-9, but Hogan tallied a huge kill to keep Hunter in control. The Hawks finished it off by scoring four of the next five points and Hogan got the deciding kill to give them a 15-10 fifth-set win and the 3-2 victory.

Hogan notched 17 kills and a team-high .364 hitting percentage to lead the squad. Jazgarski and Shala posted nine kills each, while Cyrus De Guzman added seven. Jben Mui and Guzman each had five blocks in the win.

Helford paced the offense with 41 assists and Chris Scandole recorded a team-high 15 digs to lead the defense.

The Hawks return to action on February 12 when they travel to the College of Mount Saint Vincent for a 7 p.m. match.