After an exciting victory over State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) rival SUNY Potsdam on Wednesday, April 19 by a score of 8-7 in overtime, the New Paltz women’s lacrosse team fell to SUNY Fredonia by a score of 15-8 on Saturday, April 22.
With the loss to Fredonia, the Hawks dropped to 5-8 on the season and will look to finish their season strong against No. 19 SUNY Brockport on Saturday, April 29 for Senior Day.
Despite the loss, Hawks interim head coach Keith Detelj said that the team has gained a lot of respect within the conference and they deserve a better light shone on them than the results have shown.
“We have had a couple hiccups, but overall we have been pretty solid,” Detelj said. “We are getting shots off but we have to be able to finish. We are getting chances and are in the game for 45 or 50 minutes but we have done a good job of filling different types of shoes which is good to see.”
The Hawks fell behind immediately as Fredonia second-year midfielder Samantha Spiess scored back-to-back goals to give the Blue Devils an early 2-0 lead.
Hawks third-year midfielder Kayla Massena then answered back to cut the deficit to 2-1 with a goal assisted by fourth-year co-captain Melissa Wagner.
Spiess scored her third goal of the game with 16:34 left in the first half, but Wagner answered back for the Hawks with a goal of her own assisted by fourth-year co-captain Nicole Gottschalk.
Fourth-year attacker Nicole Stackpole also lit the lamp for the Hawks, who ended the half down 6-3.
In the second, Wagner opened the scoring with her second goal of the game to make it a 6-4 game, but Spiess registered two more goals for the Blue Devils to keep Fredonia on top.
When all was said and done, Spiess recorded seven goals on the day.
Second-year midfielder Rachael Purtell scored her fifth goal of the season with 25:03 to go in the second, while Wagner chipped in two more goals and Massena logged her second goal of the game, but it wasn’t enough to top Fredonia.
“Massena and Wagner as well as Emily [Puciloski] and Jen O’Leary have really stepped up to the plate in recent games,” Detelj said. “With Alexa Criollo going down with injury the rest of the team has done a great job filling in for her absence.”
The team will now look to finish their season off strong with a win against Brockport.
Gottschalk said the team feels very unified this year and the way that they adjust themselves will lead to being successful, and the key to success against Brockport.
“Every person on the team knows that the game against Brockport could possibly be our toughest game this season,” Gottschalk said. “We have had all week to prepare and tweak some things on both our offense and defense that Brockport will not see coming. We have been watching film as a team to fix anything we have not executed well enough in our past few games.
“Our success this season has come from the hard work and dedication from each and every girl on our team no matter her age or position.”