The women’s lacrosse team started State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) play with a 20-3 road loss to SUNY Geneseo on Saturday, April 2.
The Knights held the advantage in shots (39-10), draw controls (15-9) and ground balls (12-5). New Paltz got on the board first, as third-year co-captain Melissa Wagner netted a goal just over three minutes into the game, thanks to an assist by fellow third-year co-captain Nicole Gottschalk.
However, that proved to be the only New Paltz goal of the first half, as the score stood at 12-1 at halftime.
Second-year attacker Caitlyn Morris scored the other two goals for New Paltz, and first-year midfielder Rachael Purtell also contributed with two ground balls and five draw controls. Wagner chipped in with a caused turnover. Third-year goalkeeper Colleen Roemer made 11 stops in the loss.
For Geneseo, second-year midfielder Erin Cregan and fourth-year attacker Erin Down led the way with five and four goals, respectively, while first-year midfielder Carly Cullen distributed two assists.
Despite the loss, Wagner said that the team has to have more confidence in their abilities in order to achieve future success.
“Something we took away from the loss against Geneseo is that we need to be more confident in our skills and talent,” she said. “We are a young team in a competitive conference and we need to trust and believe that what we have will allow us to achieve our goals.”
The Hawks were originally scheduled to play SUNY Oswego on Tuesday, April 5. Due to poor field conditions, the game has been moved back to Thursday, April 28.
With a record an overall record of 3-6 and 0-1 conference tally, New Paltz’s next game will be against Buffalo State on Friday, April 8. New Paltz will only face SUNYAC opponents for the remainder of the season.
Hawks third-year co-captain Nicole Petrullo expects the team to bounce back from the loss against Geneseo by working harder in order to be more successful for the rest of the season.
“To bounce back we need to strive to be the best that I know we can be,” she said. “We are certainly going to be working harder at practice and be watching more film out of practice. Taking what we learned from our first game and improving on things is how we are going to make our team better and become a more successful team.”