The Geneseo field hockey team upset the top-seeded SUNY Cortland Red Dragons on Wednesday Nov. 5 by a final score of 2-1. The Knights’ two goals came from junior midfielder Elena Hingston and freshman forward and midfielder Cara Stafford. Cortland tacked on a goal late in the game to make it 2-1, but Geneseo was in control the whole time. Head coach Jess Seren said that she was extremely confident before the game and has faith in her team’s ability and commitment.
“We are excited and ready to play,” Seren said. “We are going in knowing that postseason play is a whole different ball game. All other regular season scores do not matter and we have a different mentality now than we did before. Our players know what we have to accomplish and hopefully we can get it done.”
The Knights had only eight shots on goal, while Cortland put up 20. The defense was able to step up and create stops, which is exactly what the Knights needed to do in order to win the game.
“I wanted us to be able to walk away from that game and say we played our hardest, and we left it all out there,” Seren said. “If we want to advance to future games, we need to play to the best of our ability on both ends of the field.”
Geneseo was able to do just that with junior goalie Dayna Mercer making an impressive 13 saves. She only allowed one goal—a misplaced ball that trickled into the back of the net.
It was an impressive win for a team that was 8-11 up until that point, beating a tough Cortland team that came into the game with a 14-2 record. The Knights will now have a chance to get a bid to the NCAA tournament if they can win the SUNYAC Championship on Saturday Nov. 8 at SUNY New Paltz.
“With our tough strength of schedule and playing six top 10-ranked teams, this is what we have prepared for,” Seren said. “Our team is using those games to really build off of what we have been trying to do all season, and that is to win a SUNYAC Championship.”
The Knights will take on New Paltz on Saturday Nov. 8 at New Paltz at 1 p.m. The winner of that game will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.