Box l Updated Stats 

ROCHESTER, NY – Top-ranked New Paltz handed eighth-ranked Nazareth a four set loss (27-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-20) Saturday afternoon in the Purple and Gold Invitational.

The matchup, which counts towards the non-conference records for both teams, drops Nazareth to 21-7 overall, while the Hawks improve to 23-2.

New Paltz came out swinging in the first set hitting .593 with 18 kills on 27 attempts to just two errors.  Despite the impressive hitting percentage, Nazareth served for the set with a 24-23 lead, however, a service error doomed the Golden Flyers.  New Paltz went on to take the set 27-25.

After dropping a closely contested second set, Nazareth cruised to a 25-17 third set win.  The Golden Flyers notched 13 kills on 24 attempts with just one error for a .500 attack percentage.

In the fourth set, the squads were locked at 14, before a 6-2 run provided the Hawks some cushion to close out the match.

New Paltz edged Nazareth in hitting percentage for the match, .364 to .333.

Tim Zyburt finished with 13 kills on 26 attempts (.385), while Zachary Gillard put down 12 kills. Zyburt also registered five digs.

Kane Wittorff had an efficient day with seven kills on 11 attempts (.636), along with Chris Mahan with seven kills on 12 attempts (.500).

Jake Kemp tallied 43 assists and Tom Keisling provided 11 digs.

Nazareth travels to New York University next Saturday for UVC play.  The Golden Flyers match up against NYU at 11 a.m. and Bard at 1:30 p.m.