New York, NY – The men's volleyball team went toe-to-toe with the #1 team in the country, Springfield College, earlier this evening and despite a 3-0 loss, kept it close in each set with scores of 25-20, 27-25, 25-23. The loss moves Hunter to 10-7 overall.
 
Qendrim Shala led the way for Hunter with eight kills and five digs while Christian Maisonet added seven kills. Alec Helford made his presence felt on the court with 24 assists, four block assists and four digs.
 
In the first set, Springfield stayed a slightly ahead of the Hawks for the majority of the way, but Hunter had an answer and remained close through the initial 18 points. It was a late 5-1 Pride run that proved to be the difference maker in the set. Despite a Maisonet kill and a Springfield miscue to give the Hawks their 20^th point, Liam York hammered home the final two kills to make it 1-0 in favor of the visitors.
 
Down 11-7 in the second, each team traded 5-0 runs which resulted in a 16-12 Springfield lead. With a little help from a handful of Pride errors, the Purple and Gold used a 6-1 run to take an 18-17 lead. Knotted at 24 apiece, a kill from Maisonet gave his team set point, the visitors rattled off three unanswered points to steal the second set.
 
Playing from behind the entire third set, Hunter did not go away easily. Slowly, they chipped away and eventually pulled within one at 24-23. However, Brennan Brandow tallied the final kill of the match to complete the 3-0 defeat of Hunter.
 
The Hawks return to action tomorrow to take on John Jay and Brooklyn College at home in a CUNYAC tri-match.