October 27, 2010
Oneonta, Plattsburgh Secure Top Seeds in SUNYAC Women's Soccer Tournament
FREDONIA, N.Y. - The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Soccer Tournament is set to kick off on Saturday, October 30th with play-in games on the campuses of the higher seeds. Oneonta and Plattsburgh finished the SUNYAC regular season as the top two seeds with a 7-1-1 record, earning opening-round byes into the semifinals. The semifinals and finals will be held on November 5th and 6th on the campus of Oneonta.
Oneonta (13-4-2) has earned the #1 seed in the tournament for the 12th straight year as a result defeating Plattsburgh head-to-head in the regular season 3-2 in overtime. The Red Dragons are currently riding a three-game win streak with the last win coming against nationally ranked #11 Ithaca on Tuesday night. The Red Dragons will face the winner of Saturday's play-in between Cortland and Geneseo.
Plattsburgh (13-2-1) secured the second seed in the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Potsdam last Saturday, after missing the tournament last year. The Cardinals and will face the winner of the Buffalo State/ New Paltz game.
Third-seeded Buffalo State finished conference play at 6-2-1 and will host sixth seeded New Paltz in an opening round game at 1 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 30th. The Bengals are making its second consecutive tournament appearance and are led by Barbara Kiliszek and Melissa Mahoney who each have tallied 18 points on six goals and six assists. New Paltz finished 4-4-1 in the conference after going 1-6-2 last year. Stephanie Vega has posted six shutouts this year in net with a .803 save percentage. The Hawks lost to Buffalo State 5-1 in the second conference game of the season, back on September 24 in Buffalo.
Fourth-seeded Cortland (5-3-1) will go up against fifth-seeded Geneseo (5-4), Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Holloway Field, in a rematch of last year's SUNYAC Championship with the Knights prevailing 2-1. The two teams met two weeks ago in Cortland as the Red Dragons came away with a 1-0 win, scoring in the final 57 seconds. Cortland goalie Pam Monnier and Geneseo keeper Katie Clerkin are pretty evenly matched statistically. Monnier has seven shutouts, 0.79 goals against average and a .849 save percentage while Clerkin has posted eight shutouts, 0.79 goals against average and a .833 save percentage. Offensively the Knights have scored 39 goals this season to Cortland's 27.
