CORTLAND, NY - In Friday's women's lacrosse semifinals, Cortland and Brockport won in their respective games and will move on to the SUNYAC title game. Top seeded Cortland defeated fifth seeded Oswego in a hard fought game by a score of 13-10. Third seeded Brockport upset second seeded Geneseo by a score of 16-8. Saturday's final will take place at 12:30 p.m. at Cortland's Stadium Complex.
In the first semifinal matchup between the Red Dragons and the Lakers, eight different players scored for Cortland. Sophomore Brie Yonge led the offense with three goals. Senior Katie Wolfe, sophomore Lexie Meager and freshman Hannah Lorenzen each netted two goals. Freshman goalie Annie Casey made eight saves for the Red Dragons. Lorenzen added four ground balls, three draw controls and two caused turnovers. Fifth seeded Oswego didn't go down without a fight. Junior Teresa Shattuck lead the Lakers offense with five points on four goals and one assist. Sophomore Montana Garrett also had an outstanding game netting four goals. Senior goalie Angela Ponto registered a career high 21 saves and scooped up six ground balls.
In the first half, the biggest lead established by either team was two goals held by Cortland on two occasions. With the game tied at 2-2, Drake and Yonge scored to make it a 4-2 score. Oswego then scored three of the next four goals to even the score at 5-5 with 8:11 remaining in the half. Carly Stone then gave Cortland back the lead at 7:40, but Shattuck answered back and sent the game into halftime tied at 6-6 with her fourth goal of the half at 2:53.
The Red Dragons quickly got an 8-6 lead in the second half on goals from Meager at 28:33 and Wolfe at 27:57. The teams then went back and forth on the next five goals as Oswego pulled to within 10-9 at the 12:31 mark. The Red Dragons took control of the game with a three-goal run as Meager, Yonge and Lorenzen each scored to make it a 13-9 game with 3:04 to play. Garrett completed the scoring with her fourth goal at the 43-second mark for the 13-10 final.
In the second semifinal matchup between the Knights and the Golden Eagles, it was an offensive explosion for Brockport. Geneseo took an early 1-0 lead in the first five minutes of play, but the Golden Eagles responded right after with six consecutive goals. Geneseo's Erin Cregan netted a free position goal with 10:59 remaining in the first half, but the Golden Eagles tallied five more goals before the half to take an 11-2 advantage into the break.
In the second half, Brockport led by as many as 11 goals, taking a 13-2 lead with 27:06 remaining. Geneseo made a late push outscoring the Golden Eagles the rest of the way, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.
Taylor Thomas and Heather Conklin lead Brockport's offense with three goals a piece, followed by four players who had 2 goals each. Goalie Sarah Brown made 19 saves to help secure the win.
