New York, N.Y. - Hunter College women's volleyball's 2019 season is off to a strong start after the Hawks took down William Paterson University (25-14, 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-9) in five sets on Tuesday night.

Hunter started the match in total dominance, getting a 20-7 lead in the first set. The Pioneers began to catch up but not before the Hawks would take the first with a score of 25-14.

The second set began much closer, with the Pioneers holding onto the lead for the majority of the game. After trailing 21-16, the Purple and Gold went on a 7-2 run, finding kills from Kendra Moore, Kylie Hurst and Isabelle Lawrence to tie it up 23-23. William Paterson finished off the Hawks with the final two points to win the second, 25-23.

The Pioneers got the early advantage in set three, leading by six points until Hunter cut it to just three (18-15). From there the Hawks scored five of the next six points to take a 20-19 lead. The Pioneers managed to take back the momentum, scoring five of six points to take the set, 25-21.

The fourth set featured several tied scores until Hunter seemed to get a comfortable 20-14 lead. The Pioneers responded with four-straight points to trail by just two, but the Hawks closed it out with two-straight kills from Lawrence and a set-point kill from freshman Rodica Nedea to send the match into the fifth.

The Purple and Gold immediately took control of the fifth, jumping out to an 8-3 edge. Lawrence and Hurst combined for six kills in the final set and Mariam Ouattara found match-point, giving the Hawks the 3-2 win over the Pioneers.

The Hawks hit .217 in the victory, while holding William Paterson to a hitting percentage of .119. Hurst led the way with 22 kills, while Lawrence followed with 13. Newcomer Nadea tallied 12 kills and a team-high .385 hitting percentage off just two errors in the win. Moore rounded out the top hitters in the match, recording 10, while also posting a team-high eight blocks.

Justine Smith paced the offense with 49 assists, while Sunghee Cho controlled the Hunter defense with 25 digs. Nedea followed with 14, Hurst added 12 and Vanessa Sanchez chipped in 10 digs in the win.

The Hawks return to action this weekend when they travel to Haverford, PA., where they play three matches against Neumann, Cabrini and Haverford.