Information in this story comes courtesy of the Geneseo and Brockport Sports Information Departments
GENESEO, N.Y. - For the first time since 1998, there will be a women's lacrosse team crowned as SUNYAC champion other than Cortland.
Early Friday afternoon, the Geneseo Knights cruised to an 18-5 victory against Oswego. Following that match, the Brockport Golden Eagles knocked off the Red Dragons 17-12 late, snapping Cortland's streak of 21 consecutive SUNYAC titles won. Brockport and Geneseo will contend for the 2019 SUNYAC crown at Geneseo on Saturday, May 4 at 1:00 p.m. The conference champion automatically gains entry into the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Geneseo vs Oswego
Oswego opened the scoring with a goal at the 25:55 mark, but senior midfielder Mallory Max sparked a three-goal run for the Knights for a 3-1 lead with 24:07 to play in the first half. The Lakers drew within one goal, but the Knights finished the first half on a 7-1 run to take a 10-4 lead at halftime. Max and sophomore attackers Hannah Marafioti and Laura Skrzypczyk each scored three goals in the first half.
In the second half, Geneseo rattled off eight-straight goals, taking an 18-4 lead, and held the Lakers to one goal en route to the victory. Geneseo advanced to the SUNYAC Championship game for the eighth time in program history and for the first time since making back-to-back appearances in 2013 and 2014. The Knights will be in the hunt for their first conference title in the 22-year history of the championship.
Cortland vs Brockport
Brockport jumped out to an early one-goal lead to start the frame as Chloe Kurst buried the first goal at 28:38, but Cortland answered moments later. Two minutes later, Heather Conklin who put the Green and Gold back on top. The Red Dragons evened the score at two with 20-minutes remaining in the half.
Heather Conklin banged in her second of the night two-minutes later. Cortland answered with back-to-back scores to take the lead, 4-3. Brockport surged back, scoring five tallies in a row to take a commanding first-half lead. Kurst tied the game at four, followed by a Sara Grapevine goal to take the one goal lead.
Conklin extended the Brockport lead to two goals, followed by a Victoria Thompson tally from the stick of Grapevine. She later scored her fourth of the half to push the Golden Eagles lead to four goals. Cortland picked up two goals to narrow the Brockport lead to two.
Grapevine pushed the Brockport lead to three once more, scoring with 2:44 remaining in the frame on a beautiful feed from Kurst. Brockport allowed a goal against with two-minutes remaining to head into the half-time break ahead 9-7.
The Red Dragons stormed into the second half, scoring three goals to regain a one goal lead. Brockport put up a huge defensive stand after the three-goal lapse and was able to tie the game at ten with 17-minutes remaining. The Goal came from Jade Williams. Brockport added two more tallies moments later, as Victoria Thompson put the Green and Gold up by one, followed by Williams second of the game to extend the lead to two goals.
Heather Conklin made it five unanswered goals for the Green and Gold as she scored back-to-back tallies to bring the score to14-10. Chloe Kurst found the back of the net with six-minutes remaining to extend the Brockport advantage to five. Cortland was able to find the back of net with a minute later to bring the deficit back to four. Brockport responded two minutes later as Kurst buried the 16th of the game from Grapevine.
Cortland tallied their 12th of the game moments after the Kurst tally, but it would not be enough to complete the comeback as Conklin put in her 7th of the night to close out the game.
