In another up-and-down week, the Geneseo women’s lacrosse team defeated SUNY Oneonta 15-9 on April 14 but fell 17-11 to Buffalo State College on April 17. Geneseo has failed to win consecutive games since the first two of the season.
After losing the first two draws to Oneonta, “[Geneseo] switched some things up and started winning the draws, which made a huge difference,” said head coach Carly Ritchlin. According to Ritchlin, sophomore defender Bridget McGovern helped make that difference.
“McGovern stepped up and did an amazing job on draws, which completely forced Oneonta to change their game plan, ultimately getting frustrated because they weren’t able to do what they had planned on doing,” said Ritchlin.
Leading the offense for the Knights was sophomore Emily Haggerty, who scored five goals, and freshman Katey Hart, who collected four scores and one assist. Juniors Lea Paris and Rachel Petrone scored with less than two minutes left in the first half to gain momentum and an 8-5 lead.
Oneonta regained some life, scoring two quick goals at the beginning of the second half to come just one point below Geneseo.
“I don’t think for one moment we were relaxed. We knew we had to stay in it mentally and physically the entire game,” said Ritchlin. That was as close as the Red Dragons would get, as Hart scored three consecutive goals to start a seven-goal eruption for the Knights, giving them a 15-7 lead.
The momentum did not translate to Tuesday’s game as Buffalo State jumped out to a 3-0 early lead. While the Knights fought back to come within two, the Bengals scored the final two goals of the first half to take a 9-5 lead at the break.
After cutting the lead to three at 11-8, Buffalo State pulled away, scoring six unanswered goals throughout the next 12 minutes. Geneseo added three goals in the final minutes to close the gap slightly.
Buffalo State senior attacker Karen Shaddock scored a school record 10 goals, and with her two assists, she tied the school record for points in a game with 12. Shaddock’s effort also made her the first Bengal to ever record over 400 points in a career.
Sophomore Caroline Buonocore scored five goals and won three draws for Geneseo, while Haggerty scored three goals, provided one assist and won three draws.
Junior goalie Julie Bernatzky recorded 15 saves as the Knights fell to 6-5 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
Geneseo travels to face the Tigers at the Rochester Institute of Technology on Thursday April 19 at 4 p.m.