SUNY New Paltz’s men’s and women’s soccer teams saw an end to their postseasons following their first matches in the SUNYAC Championship Tournament. The No. 5 seeded men’s team fell to No. 4 seed Buffalo State 1-0 and the No. 4 seeded women’s team lost 3-2 in a best-of-five shootout following a scoreless double overtime against No. 5 seed Oswego State.
Despite this year being the men’s team’s third consecutive tournament appearance, they haven’t won a playoff game since 2012 when the No. 6 seeded Hawks upset No. 3 seeded Brockport. This is also the women’s team’s third consecutive appearance, but the second time in three years that they’ve lost a playoff match in penalties. In 2021, the No. 4 seeded Hawks were outshot 4-3 against the No. 5 seeded Fredonia.
The women’s team finished their season with an 8-5-5 record, while the men’s wrapped up at 9-2-4. Both matches saw extraordinary efforts from the Hawks to keep their championship dreams alive, with the women’s team having 19 shots total and men’s goalkeeper Christian Micheli making seven saves in the second half of the match.
The women’s team’s match saw their regulation go without a single score from either side, mirroring the Hawks’ last meeting against Oswego State on Oct. 14 that had a total of 17 shots from the Hawks and Lakers combined, ending in a 0-0 tie. The Hawks haven’t defeated Oswego State in a match since 2021, when they triumphed against the Lakers in a 2-1 overtime victory.
The women’s team will only see three players leave: Katie Buquicchio, Ally Donovan and Jess Funke. Each graduating player has plenty of impressive achievements to their name, with Buquicchio and Funke having the second and third highest amounts of minutes of action on the team, respectively, and Donovan starting in all 17 games in the 2022 season.
As for the men’s team’s playoff match, the one score from Buffalo State came off a throw-in close to the goal with less than 10 minutes remaining.
When the Hawks played against the Bengals during the regular season on Sept. 24, they held them scoreless, winning 2-0. It was the team’s first SUNYAC win of the season and ended up being the same team that made for the Hawks’ last game of the year.
It was the first time since 2018 that the Bengals held the Hawks without a single score and the team will look to bounce back next season.
“I was really proud of the team’s mentality, their energy and the way they dictated play, creating some good chances and minimizing the impact Buffalo State had,” said Kyle Clancy, New Paltz’s men’s soccer coach.
While the end of both teams’ seasons were disappointing for the Hawks, they ended the year with impressive records and will be back in no time to finish the job.