Geneseo women’s basketball ended the SUNYAC tournament this past weekend by splitting their two games. Despite their eventual loss to the SUNY New Paltz Hawks in the overtime of the SUNYAC championship, the Knights officially received an at-large bid for the NCAA Division III tournament.
“At first glance the weekend didn’t go as well as we had hoped it would, but we know we put our best foot forward and it just didn’t turn out our way unfortunately,” head coach Alyssa Polosky said. “Friday night’s game went awesome…and then on Saturday we had a quick turnaround for a championship game against another team in a tough place to play.”
The Knights began their weekend with a face-off against the SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils on Friday Feb. 22 for the SUNYAC semi-finals. Geneseo handily kept the Blue Devils at bay; Fredonia ended the first three quarters with a total of 15 points to the Knights’ 49.
The defensive effort was one of the strongest in the team’s history. Never have the Knights been able to keep their opponents to so few points in a game against a post-season SUNYAC opponent, according to the college’s sports information office.
The Knights took the court against the Hawks the next day with a slightly dismal history to accompany them. The Hawks delivered the Knights defeats in both of their faceoffs during the regular season, making up two of the Knights’ only three losses.
The competitive spirit showed itself immediately as the two teams tangled over the ball. Geneseo came out of the first ten minutes barely on top, 13-11, before they fell into a nine-point deficit in the second quarter, where the Hawks kept them to only two points. The Knights came into the second half and racked up a remarkable 21 points, but eventually the Hawks tied the game up at 52 to force overtime.
Throughout the night, the Knights’ polished passing met the Hawks’ in-your-face offense and defense and came away with a literal stalemate. Although New Paltz did pull ahead to officially win the game, the match certainly proved that the two rivals matched each other well.
“They are always a tough match-up for us and they’re an exceptional team this year,” Polosky said. “I think we got better each time we played them, and I think we learned from our mistakes, but playoffs are just different. I think our level of play was high, but so was theirs and you have to expect that.”
Even though the Knights didn’t get a chance to cut down New Paltz’s net, they did receive a comforting coda to their season. When the NCAA unveiled the bracket for this year’s DIII women’s basketball tournament, Geneseo sat right on the list, set to take on the Vassar College Brewers on Friday March 1 at Amherst College.
Either way the Knights will take Friday’s game as an opportunity to fittingly cap off Polosky’s first season and the seniors’ last.
“We all wish we could have won, but we are all so happy to have a second chance [with the NCAA tournament] because we know there are a lot of teams wishing they had a second chance,” Polosky said. “I hope we don’t take it for granted.”