After last week's milestone weekend, the Geneseo women's field hockey team defeated the Morrisville State Mustangs 3-0 on Saturday, putting the Knights at 6-1 for the year and 3-0 in the SUNYAC conference.
Senior midfielder Erin Zalewski started the offense just 13 minutes into the match, scoring an unassisted goal and giving the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
The rest of the first half went smoothly for the Knights. While they scored no additional goals, the Knights put relentless pressure on the Mustangs, outshooting them by a dominant 12-4 margin. At the same time, the Knights played outstanding defense, giving up no shots on goal and keeping goalie sophomore Caitlyn Dowell well protected.
The second half was more of the same. Eleven minutes into the second half, freshman forward Katie Farley scored the game's second goal off of a rebound from senior Michelle Milkovich's deflected shot.
Seventeen minutes later Milkovich, the senior forward who became Geneseo's all-time leader in points last week, was able to add to her total with a goal of her own. This capped the scoring at 3-0, but it did not cap the Knights' aggression. By the end of the match, Geneseo had outshot the Mustangs by an astounding 36-8.
"We did a good job of setting the tone early," said head coach Jessica Seren. "Our passing game was really on which allowed us to break down their defense and sustain an offensive attack."
The Knights' offense controlled the action all game long, and when the Mustangs' offense did assert itself, Dowell and sophomore defenders Katie Gallo and Aly Tarney quickly extinguished their effort. "Our defense did a great job of pressuring throughout the midfield and came up with some key stops that limited Morrisville's chance of getting into any sort of rhythm," Seren said.
Upcoming opponents will find it difficult to uncover any weaknesses in watching the film of the match or reviewing the box score.
Looking forward, next week will be crucial for the Knights. Back-to-back away games against conference opponents are coming up this Friday and Saturday at SUNY Cortland and SUNY Oswego. The Cortland game will be an especially important game for the Knights as Cortland is riding an undefeated 8-0 for the year. This match could well decide the winner of the SUNYAC conference come season's end. After the road trip, Geneseo will be at home Wednesday against Nazareth College.