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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- In its regular-season finale, top-ranked Nazareth suffered its first men's volleyball defeat Saturday as sixth-ranked New Paltz bested the Golden Flyers in three sets by scores of 25-22, 25-20, 25-20. Earlier in the day, at the Vassar Invitational, Nazareth extended its winning streak to 31 matches with a three-set sweep of Johnson & Wales. Those scores were 25-13, 25-22, 25-12.

At 31-1 overall, Nazareth will be the top seed and host of the United Volleyball Conference Tournament April 13-14. Nazareth will play Penn State Behrend in a quarterfinal round match at 10 a.m. April 13. The conference winner will gain an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Nazareth defeated New Paltz in a five-set match on March 9, but the Hawks improved to 23-5 with Saturday's convicing win. Brian Smith had 12 kills and Tim Frriter and John Lutjen each had 10. Nazareth never led in any of the three sets.

The Hawks hit a solid .407 as a team with 48 kills against just 13 hitting errors in 48 attempts. Nazareth, meanwhile, hit .247 (33-14-77). Senior Robert Kraft had 11 kills for Nazareth in 15 attempts for a .667 hitting percentage. Sophomore Luke Lawatsch added nine kills in 13 attempts and senior EJ Wells-Spicer had 29 assists and eight digs. Wells-Spicer represented the Golden Flyers on the all-tournament team.

Against Johnson & Wales, freshmen Bobby Beeman and Chris Mahan finished with nine kills and eight kills, respectively, for Nazareth.

Nazareth dominated the Wildcats in the first and third sets as Johnson & Wales managed only 25 points in the two sets combined. Between the two sets, the Golden Flyers allowed only 12 kills and forced the Wildcats into 11 hitting errors. Nazareth, meanwhile, finished the first set with 11 kills and four errors for a .333 attack percentage and completed the third set with 16 kills and four errors for a .522 hitting percentage.

In the second set, the Wildcats stayed in the contest by forcing Nazareth to commit nine hitting errors. The Golden Flyers finished with 11 kills to offset their errors.

Following Beeman and Mahan, senior Alex Houghtalen had seven kills. Wells-Spicer finished with a match-high 30 assists and eight digs. Classmate Dan Mowery collected a match-high 10 digs to solidify Nazareth's defense. Mahan was credited with seven assisted blocks to stymie the Wildcats' offensive attack at the net.