The lacrosse team is currently on a four-game losing streak, falling to The College at Brockport, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Cortland and SUNY Oswego.
On Saturday, April 12, the Lady Hawks fell to The College at Brockport Eagles 22-13. With the score being tied five times during the duration of the first half, Brockport scored the final three goals of the half in the final 2:16 of play to take a 9-8 lead. The Eagles then added eight-straight goals in the first 13 minutes of the second half to build a 19-8 lead with 17:29 to play. The Lady Hawks fought back by scoring five more goals before the final buzzer, but it wasn’t enough.
The Lady Hawks hosted SUNY Oneonta on Wednesday, April 16. For 50 minutes of play, the Lady Hawks kept the Lady Red Dragons within three goals. After fourth-year attack Talia Tesler scored her 26th goal of the season at the 20:20 mark of the second half, making the score 13-10, the Hawks made it a three-goal deficit and mounted a comeback.
Oneonta responded with seven of the next eight goals to build a 20-11 lead at the 8:18 mark. From there, the lead was expanded enough to put the Lady Red Dragons in the win column defeating the Lady Hawks 23-14.
Both Tesler and third-year midfielder Carissa Citro each had four goals for New Paltz.
On Saturday, April 19, the Lady Hawks traveled to Cortland, N.Y. To take on the SUNY Cortland Lady Red Dragons, who are the No. 2 ranked nationally in NCAA Div. III.
Twelve different Lady Red Dragons scored goals, defeating the Lady Hawks 22-5.
Citro lead the Hawks in ground balls with five.
On Tuesday, April 22, the Lady Hawks hosted SUNY Oswego. New Paltz was down 10-8 with 20 minutes to play. Oswego scored four straight goals in a seven minute span to earn a 16-10 victory.
Head Coach Liz Student said the team is learning from each of the three losses, especially SUNY Cortland, who is No. 1 NCAA Div. III team in the country.
“I think we can learn from playing the best,” she said. “We did some good things and we did some things that we just need to fix. Playing against the best in the country, you’re going to learn a lot about yourselves. We played hard for sixty minutes, which was very refreshing to see. We did some really good things. We will improve on the things that we need to work on and continue to do the things that we do well.”
Student said both Tesler and Citro are hard workers who work well together.
“Carissa is the workhorse of the team,” Student said. “She’s always working hard. She’s somebody that doesn’t need to be told to pick it up, which is great. She’s great on the draw. When she’s back on defense, she’ll get a couple of turnovers down there, bring it up, and help our offense distribute the ball.”
Citro said the team is concentrating on positive aspects.
“We have had a lot of ups and downs within each game,” she said. “We are concentrating on the ups and focusing on reaching our full potential. Our team continues to withhold a positive attitude and prepare for our next SUNYAC game.”
Despite the current losing streak, the Lady Hawks are continue to stay positive.
“We will continue to work as a team and support each other,” Citro said. “In order to bounce back we need to continue to have the will to win and remember to leave it all on the field.”
Tesler leads the SUNYAC conference with 3.64 goals per game, as well as shots-per-game with 7.55. Citro is second-ranked in the SUNYAC conference in points-per-game with 4.36. Third-year goaltender Jackie Ulanoff leads the conference in saves-per-game with 10.27.
“The team really wants to finish the season out strong, we’re just taking that momentum and giving our seniors all we have left,” Student said.
The Lady Hawks, who have an overall record of 4-8 and 1-6 record in SUNYAC play, conclude their regular season schedule at home with a SUNYAC matchup against SUNY Geneseo on Saturday at 1 p.m.
