Former Knight Grace Dempsey dribbles past a defender in a 2018 game against the William Smith College Herons. Geneseo defeated SUNYAC rival Morrisville on Saturday Sept. 28 to add to their win streak. (Courtesy of Udeshi Seneviratne)
finished up a very successful three-game homestand on Saturday Sept 28. Their 8-0 shutout against the SUNY Morrisville Mustangs was their third straight shutout.
Not only have the Knights kept their opponents scoreless during their streak, but they have also not been scored on since early in the 4th quarter of their 3-1 victory in Nazareth on Sept. 18.
On top of the Knights not surrendering a goal in the past 194 minutes and ten seconds of gameplay, they also have not lost a game dating back to a 4-2 loss on Sept. 11 at St. John Fisher College.
The Knights’ five-game winning streak came at an opportune time because the game against Morrisville began their conference schedule.
Junior captain Jordan Penkitis explained the meaning of conference games. “[Conference games] are the ones that matter when it comes to [the conference] standings, the rankings, who hosts and that makes the games important,” she said. “When we win conference games, our ranking goes up and we have the ability to host SUNYACs so the whole tournament happens here.”
Having home-field advantage in the playoffs will be important for the Knights as they continue their quest to their second straight SUNYAC Championship appearance. This homestand was emblematic of the importance of home-field advantage.
Coming into the stretch of games played in College Stadium, the Knights had scored 20 goals in seven games and were averaging 2.86 goals a game. After more than doubling their season total by scoring 21 goals in the three-game homestand, the Knights’ goal-per-game average skyrocketed to 4.1. That mark is good for the best average in the conference.
The Knights have a lot to build on after such a successful weekend. “The way we play in some of those games builds our confidence,” Penktitis said. She warned, however, about getting too hung up on one good game. “We also need to take it one game at a time, focus on [one] team first and then the next. We use the confidence we are gaining to focus on one game at a time.”
Many Geneseo players were able to build confidence in the game against Morrisville. Junior forward Haley Clark exploded for two goals and one assist within the first 11 minutes of the first quarter as the Knights built a three-goal lead. Junior forward Hayley Fonfara increased the lead to 5-0 in the second quarter with two goals of her own. After halftime, sophomore midfielder Katherine Kreiss scored her first collegiate goal. First-year forward Isabella Vinciguerra added onto the lead in the fourth quarter for her first career goal and first-year midfielder Cassidy Sturdevant rounded out the scoring with her first collegiate goal as well, making the final score 8-0.
Penkitis was excited to see three players score their first college goals. The captain suggested that having a lot of players who know they can score helps the entire team play as a more cohesive unit.
The Knights have five more conference games on their schedule and the team will be prepared especially after such a successful stretch of games.
According to Penkitis, the preparation for conference games are a little different. “Conference games get more intense, people get more amped up before the game. It is exciting, we have special traditions we do before conference games,” she said.
Whatever traditions and pregame routines the Knights used before the Morrisville game certainly worked, and the team will look to carry on that success on Saturday Oct. 5 when they take on SUNY Cortland on the road at 1 p.m.