Lacrosse Looks To Stay Positive In Conference Play

The lacrosse team is currently .500 on the season after their 17-5 loss to SUNY Fredonia April 5 and 22-19 loss to Farmingdale State College April 8.

The Lady Hawks could not come back from the Lady Blue Devil’s early 6 point lead at the start of the game, as Fredonia tallied seven points to the Lady Hawks’ one at the midway point of the first half.

Third-year midfielder and defender Julia Johnson and third-year attack and midfielder Kelsey Healy found the back of the net to bring the score to 7-3, while fourth-year Captain Talia Telser ended the first half with an unassisted goal at 1:49 remaining, but the Blue Devils maintained a strong lead, going into the half up 9-4.

Fredonia’s 38 shots on goal compared to the Lady Hawks’ 15 led to the Lady Blue Devil’s scoring eight goals in the second compared to the Lady Hawks’ lone one, scored by third-year Captain Carisa Citro at 16:32.

Head Coach Liz Student said the program, which has a “very team-oriented style of play,” came out flat in the game against the Lady Rams and dropped the ball in terms of remaining positive about the good things the team was doing.

“This weekend we didn’t play like us,” Student said. “When our team plays together and they celebrate all the good things, we play very well. You need your teammates to pick you up, and we just didn’t come out to play.”

Student said the team getting excited about the good work they are producing – transitioning the ball well, a big save by third-year Captain Jackie Ulanoff, finding the back of the net – is pertinent to the success of the team moving forward.

“It’s important to recognize those things because they fuel everyone else,” she said.

But the Lady Hawks still tallied a loss against non-conference opponent Farmingdale Tuesday on the road, dropping a close game in a match up with strong offensive presence from both sides. The impact of Tesler’s six goals, accompanied by Healy and third-year midfielder Lianne Valdivia’s four apiece, were not enough with 3:04 left in the game as the Lady Rams tallied two straight goals to end the contest.

“Lacrosse is a game of runs and Farmingdale was able to pull together a strong comeback in the second half,” third-year defenseman Fatima Ismail said. “The game was very close and both teams were fighting for the win towards the end.”

Ismail said the Lady Hawks’ schedule is designed so that each consecutive match is more challenging than the previous, and the team is “striving to elevate their play and compete throughout these games.”  For the rest of the week the team looks to fine tune their play in preparation for Brockport this weekend, she said.

Student said as a coach she is taking the losses of the last few games as a bump in the road that the team can and will get over and looks forward to the team returning to SUNYAC play in Saturday’s game against the College at Brockport.

The Lady Hawks’ first conference game against Potsdam, where the team came back from a seven point deficit to beat the Lady Bears 15-14, will provide inspiration as the Lady Hawks take on Brockport and the remainder of their SUNYAC competitors.

“That proved to the team that we are capable of great things, but in order to do those things we have to work together and get excited about little things,” Student said. “We did that the second half of the Potsdam game, so we’re going to bring that into the rest of the  season.”