After splitting conference games against SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland, the Geneseo field hockey team is now 4-2 on the season.
On Sept. 16 the Knights took on their first conference opponent of the season in Oswego, who came in sporting a 2-3 overall record.
The first half was evenly played and saw no goals from either team.
"We were generating good attack, but weren't finishing," head coach Jessica Seren said. "At halftime I said it was a matter of pulling our midfielders back to give our forwards more room to work."
Those halftime adjustments seemed to pay immediate dividends as sophomore forward Kayla DeAngelis scored just a few minutes into the second half, off a rebound from a shot by sophomore Bridget McGovern.
But the Lakers stormed right back and tied the game from a penalty corner.
"That was kind of frustrating and something we have to continue to work on," Seren said.
Geneseo was not able to capitalize on a few more opportunities down the stretch and took a 1-1 tie into overtime. "Going into overtime, I thought we had an advantage with speed and stick skills that we could exploit," Seren said.
Indeed, five minutes into the overtime period sophomore Katie Farley took a pass from junior defender Rachel Atkins and buried it in the net for the game winner.
That goal wouldn't have happened if Atkins hadn't made a key play on the other end of the field minutes before; Oswego took a shot that got past junior goalie Caitlyn Dowell, but Atkins "was in great position to clear the ball off the line," Seren said.
The next day, Sept. 17, the Knights hosted bitter rival Cortland. Geneseo got off to a bit of a slow start and took a 2-1 deficit into halftime.
Throughout the first half, the squad "had [their] chances," coach Seren said, but "just needed to finish."
It was much of the same in the second half for the Knights, until senior midfielder Abby Sayler tied the game with less than 10 minutes to go, from DeAngelis' pass off of a penalty corner.
It appeared as though Geneseo had all of the momentum going its way, and with the clock winding down, Cortland head coach Cynthia Wetmore called a timeout to break it. Almost immediately, Cortland drew a penalty corner and converted for the go-ahead goal and eventual game winner, finalizing the score at 3-2.
Geneseo will host SUNY Morrisville on Sept. 23 before traveling to Hartwick College and William Smith College on Sept. 25 and 28, respectively.u
Editor's Note:
The Knights hosted Utica College on Sept. 21 and dropped a tough game, 1-2. Geneseo outshot the Pioneers 15-4 and controlled penalty corner opportunities, 14-3. Freshman Brianne Campagna scored Geneseo's lone goal, the first of her career.