Senior guard Kelsey Poplawski attempts a contested jum pshot against SUNY Brockport on Saturday Feb. 9. Poplawski led all Knights with 12 points in the game (Josie Kwan/assoc. Photo editor).
Geneseo women’s basketball finished out a winning regular season this past weekend with two close games against the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons and the SUNY Oswego Lakers. As the Knights prepare for their first post-season match against SUNY Fredonia on Friday Feb. 22, they want to keep their focus on the near future.
“We’re really determined to take it one game at the time and really looking for a team win,” sophomore guard Lindsay Halpin said. “[We’re] just taking it one day at a time, one practice, one game and really hoping to come away with a win.”
The Knights took the court at home against the Red Dragons on Friday Feb. 15 and came away with a close 68-65 victory. Geneseo put up a varied game, from scoring 28 points in the second quarter to only four points in the third. Senior forward McKenna Brooks scored a whopping 22 points and the team left with a 53.7 percent shooting percentage from the field.
Geneseo went up against the Oswego Lakers for their last game of the regular season on Saturday Feb. 16. Despite the Lakers dismal 2-23 record, the game ended up similarly close to the Red Dragons game, with a 56-53 final score.
Saturday’s game marked the end of the college careers for the team’s four departing seniors. Brooks, senior forward Nicole Kaczmarczyk, senior forward Alyssa Lesakowski and senior guard Kelsey Poplawski all celebrated the close to their last regular season before the game began.
“I think we were kind of our own worst enemies that day,” head coach Alyssa Polosky said. “It was Senior Day, so that was really fun to honor all of our seniors … but I think we were exposed a little bit with some things we still needed to work on going into [the playoffs]. Once you play a better team, you might not come out with a win like we did on Saturday if you make those mistakes.”
Geneseo’s match against the Lakers also marked the last game of Polosky’s first regular season as head coach.
“Every day has gotten easier and every game I’ve learned something that I need to be better at for the next game,” Polosky said. “Day by day it seems like it goes so slow, but then you look back and wonder where the past six months have gone. It’s been awesome, it’s been challenging, it’s been rewarding, it’s been everything that you could describe something as.”
The Knights are set to begin SUNYACs with the semi-final match against Fredonia on Friday Feb. 22 at New Paltz’s gymnasium. Although the team just barely missed their chance to host the match, they are prepared to take on Fredonia.
“We beat them twice, but since it’s the playoffs we know everyone’s going to give us their best shot,” Kaczmarczyk said. “We’re going to really have to come in, really focus on defense and trust our offense and trust each other. We’re really excited.”
If Geneseo does win on Friday in the semi-finals they will face either SUNY New Paltz or SUNY Brockport. New Paltz delivered Geneseo two of its three losses on the season, so should the Knights make it past Fredonia and face New Paltz, it could be a tough match.
Either way, the team doesn’t want to end the post-season without a fight.
“This season we have been pretty successful, but I don’t think I’m ready for it to be over. I don’t want to leave saying we could’ve done more or we could’ve done this better,” Kaczmarczyk said. “It’d be awesome if we could come out of this weekend with two wins, win SUNYACs and then get an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament.”