New York, N.Y. - Hunter College men's volleyball split matches on Saturday in a tri-match hosted at the Sportsplex, falling to UC Santa Cruz before getting a win over St. John Fisher College.

The Hawks finish out the 2019 regular season with a 17-12 record and an undefeated mark of 7-0 in CUNYAC. The team secured the #1 seed in the upcoming CUNYAC Championship tournament.

UC Santa Cruz 3, Hunter 0
The Purple and Gold started the day by dropping a three-set match to the Banana Slugs with scores of 25-19, 25-16 and 26-24.

Hunter was unable to stop the Slugs on defense, as the team put up a hitting percentage of .391, compared to Hunters mark of .120.

Qendrim Shala and Christian Maisonet led the squad with nine kills each, while Alec Helford posted a team-high eight digs and 24 assists. 

Hunter 3, SJFC 2
The Hawks bounced back in the second match of the day, taking a close one over the Cardinals with scores of 29-27, 23-25, 24-26, 25-21 and 15-13.

The Cardinals took a 17-10 lead in the first set, but the Hawks began to come back when a kill from Shala propelled them on a 7-2 run. The Hawks tied it up at 21 and then pulled ahead when Shala recorded three of Hunter's next four kills. The set featured four more tied scores before the Purple and Gold found the final two points from Blake Hogan to get the 29-27 win.

The second set was another close one as the score ended up tied again, 23-23. St. John Fisher figured this one out, getting the last two points off a kill and block to tie the match, 1-1.

Things looked good for the Purple and Gold in the third set when they took a comfortable 17-12 lead, bu the Cardinals slowly began their comeback and eventually tied it up at 23. Hunter's Maisonet found a kill to put the Hawks ahead again, but from there SJFC took the last three points to edge out the Hawks, 26-24.

With a tied score of 13-13 in the fourth set, Hunter got a lead off a kill from Cyrus De Guzman and never looked back. The Cardinals stayed close but never managed to catch back up as the Hawks won, 25-21 to send it into the fifth.

The Hawks fell behind early in the fifth set, trailing 8-6. From there they capitalized on a Cardinal error and Shala and Hogan found kills to give Hunter a 9-8 advantage. SJFC did not go away quietly, tying the score four more times before the Hawks scored three-straight points for a 14-12 lead. Maisonet got the deciding kill in the match, giving Hunter the 15-13 win in the fifth set.

Shala had a big game for the Hawks, posting 22 kills and 19 digs in the win. Hogan followed with 17 kills and 16 digs, while Maisonet recorded 14 kills for Hunter.

Helford paced the Hunter offense that registered a .219 hitting percentage, finding 53 assists and adding 17 digs. Chris Scandole led the defense with a match-high 22 digs for the Purple and Gold.

The team returns to the court on Friday, April 12 when they host the 2019 CUNYAC Championships.