Doubles dominate for Tennis

Second team doubles players senior Amanda Rosati and junior Mai Hashimoto sparked the Knights on Saturday Sept. 27 and Sunday Sept. 28 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Tournament with an unbelievable upset. The pair took down the fourth-seeded duo from William Smith College of junior Katarina Kostovic and sophomore Hannah More 9-8—dominating the A flight champions 7-1 in the tiebreaker. Implementing head coach Jim Chen’s aggressive strategy of attacking the net, they won an unbelievable match against top-tier competitors. The pair was just put together this week by Chen. “They showed a lot of fight,” he said.

Other than Skidmore College, Geneseo advanced the most players (two) in the tournament to the third round of singles. Those two players were junior Cat Crummey and junior Marylen Santos—the unstoppable doubles duo that has embodied the Knights’ play this year: agile, communicative and aggressive.

“They have the ability to make this team fly,” Chen said.

Chen also said that third-team doubles partners sophomore Maggie Hale and senior Minxuan Yuan have used aggressive tactics in combination with their individual skills to boost themselves to an 8-2 record on the season in doubles play.

“I want to win using the correct strategy,” Chen said. To improve their success, the team practices with male tennis players who Chen calls “extremely talented.” The men play aggressively against the girls, giving them intense competition at game speed.

Making an interesting decision, Chen will bring in a sports psychologist this week to figure out why the team is having some difficulty with this new aggressive strategy in doubles.

“Most tennis players coming out of high school are singles players,” Chen said. His strategy contradicts what they have been taught for so many years in regards to how to play the court. His goal is to find the root of the problem and solve it before the SUNYAC Tournament begins on Oct. 10.

The Knights will visit SUNY Cortland on Friday Oct. 3 before playing their final home match before SUNYACs against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RPI has a skilled team that the Knights will match up against well. This match could truly be a preview of how ready this team is to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Men’s soccer splits conference openers

The Geneseo men’s soccer team may have began its SUNYAC campaign with a rough start against SUNY Fredonia, but the Knights made up for it with a 2-1 win against Buffalo State. The Knights lost to Fredonia 1-0 Sept. 26, holding off Fredonia’s offense up until the final minutes of the game.

“Fredonia is having a pretty good year and they had a good run of form lately,” head coach Dominic Oliveri said.

The game was the first conference game of the season and Oliveri said that he had expected to see a high level of intensity during the game.

“I was trying to get the team to realize that the game was going to be much more intense and physical; that we needed to be much more engaged,” he said.

Geneseo and Fredonia battled for possession and exchanged opportunities to score throughout the entire game. Fredonia outshot the Knights 11-9, but Oliveri thought Geneseo played at a higher level for at least part of the game.

“I thought we were the better team in the second half,” he said. “We had four or five really good chances, whereas they had one or two.”

Despite these opportunities, Geneseo has not been able to put the ball into the back of the net this season.

“We’re getting quality chances—which are a good thing—but we’re not finishing,” Oliveri said. “Mentality-wise, it’s getting to our heads.”

Going into the game against Buffalo State, Oliveri needed his team to bounce back strong.

“You can’t afford to lose back-to-back games in a weekend,” he said. “As soon as the Fredonia game was over, I told them to move on and look forward to tomorrow.”

The Knights confidence was initially shaken after Buffalo State scored three minutes into the first half. Geneseo went into halftime down 1-0, but they were able to turn it around by scoring two goals in the second half.

Oliveri said that after he substituted a few players, the team was able to win the game back. Junior defender Brad Campion and sophomore midfielder John Leva both scored, securing the win for the Knights.

Oliveri said that he is looking forward to the next SUNYAC games against SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta on Friday Oct. 3 and Saturday Oct. 4, respectively.

Editor’s note:

The Knights beat Nazareth College 3-0 on Tuesday Sept. 30.

Knights win two in opening weekend

The Geneseo volleyball team continued to leave competitors in the dust as the Knights went 2-1 in their first SUNYAC games of the season. The most important moment in the SUNYAC pool play wasn’t the loss against Buffalo State—the most important moment is deeply rooted in the Knights win against SUNY Plattsburgh. The last time Geneseo played Plattsburgh, the Knights lost 3-1.

The loss against Buffalo was a tough one. Despite the Bengals having a record of 9-7 going into the game against Geneseo, it was a hard-fought match,

“Each set was close,” head coach Jennifer Salmon said. “It was kind of like back and forth, competitive match for sure. It was a good kind of wake-up call for us in regards to what specifically we need to work on to prepare for our next three conference matchups.”

It’s definitely a good idea for the Knights to prepare for their upcoming games––this is a team that went from a 13-19 record last season to a very impressive 15-3 start this year. As the squad continues to work, a key will be its humble approach when playing the game.

“We have a lot of time to work on things,” Salmon said. “One thing I’d like to work on is endurance. I think we did get fatigued toward the end of that Buffalo State match, so we’re going to work on fitness in regards to being able to outlast our opponents.”

Although the Knights do not have a game for another couple of weeks, they are still hard at work improving the skills they have honed over this season.

“There’s always specific skills that we can improve on,” Salmon said. “I feel like you’re never perfect in any skill.”

Salmon is excited to continue the so-far successful season.

“We didn’t perform as well as we hoped to against Buffalo, but I am happy overall with the weekend,” she said. “I felt like it was a really good opening week for us.”

Cross country shines heading into break

With the weekend behind them, the Geneseo men’s and women’s cross country teams can look ahead to an excellent remainder of their season thanks to their stellar finishes on Saturday Sept. 27 at the Pre-NCAA meet in Mason, Ohio. Both teams had top-two finishes, with the women winning their race and the men coming in second place. The women’s team finished with two runners placing first and second––seniors Cassie Goodman and Alyssa Knott––while also placing seven total runners in the top 20. The men’s team had one top-five finisher with senior Cohen Miles-Rath placing fifth. The team as a whole ended up with five of the top 32 runners.

The only option that the Knights have now is to maintain the level of excellence that they have had throughout the entire season. The teams are in a great position largely due to that fact that some of their runners had unbelievable race times. Miles-Rath completed the eight-kilometer race with a time of 24:02.62, helping the Knights hold on to their victory. Goodman and Knott were the first two finishers of the women’s six-kilometer competition, finishing in under 21:12.00.

“They put themselves on the map. They ran the best races of their lives and they answered the bell,” head coach Mike Woods said.

Now in good standing, the Knights can look ahead to Saturday Oct. 4 when they host the Geneseo Invitational at Letchworth State Park. The competition looks stiff; teams including Dickinson College pose a real threat to the Knights’ goal for victory.

“I don’t think that I need to stress this one as much; the athletes seem to know what’s at stake,” Woods said.

After Saturday, things start to cool down for the Knights. They will have two weeks off before going back to work on Oct. 18 at the Inter-Regional Rumble in Oberlin, Ohio. The two weeks off should be a welcome rest for both teams, who will have had six races in the past four weeks. It will give them the time that they need to recover from injuries and take a break from the mid-season grind.

Although the Geneseo cross country teams have made this season look relatively easy so far, they have had a difficult season. Anytime that you finish first or second at the Pre-NCAAs, your team is going to be a bit tired the next weekend. The Knights are going to have to overcome their fatigue if they plan on winning this coming meet, something on the top of their to-do list.

Field hockey unfazed by loss

After a loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Sunday Sept. 28, the Geneseo field hockey team fell to 3-6 on the season. The Knights are now headed into their first SUNYAC home weekend of the season. Despite the loss, head coach Jess Seren is looking on the bright side. “The positives of the game were our defense as a team,” Seren said. “Our goalie [junior] Dayna Mercer played especially well and came up with some really nice saves.”

Despite the score being tied at halftime, Geneseo could not manage to make a final strike.

“In the second half, we outshot them 12-5 … but we just could not capitalize on our offensive opportunities, which is a big area of focus for us,” Seren said.

The Knights look to improve their SUNYAC record to 3-0 this weekend as they take on the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragons on Friday Oct. 3 and the SUNY New Paltz Hawks on Saturday Oct. 4. These will be tough games—New Paltz is the reigning conference champion and Oneonta is a team Seren describes as “offensively quick and fundamentally sound.”

The Knights sit at 1-0, one of three teams left undefeated with SUNY Cortland and SUNY Brockport. While most teams that lose a game in conference play will be able to sort out the issues before the next contest, Seren thinks that those teams are right where they want to be.

“With one loss under their belts, it is a big weekend for them in terms of making sure they do not pick up two more losses on top of that and put themselves at 1-3,” she said. “We know that we have to come ready to play no matter what and we definitely have the advantage on our home turf.”

A team’s record does not always display how well a team is truly doing––Seren had nothing but positive things to say about her team.

“Our defense has been playing well and we’ve been holding teams, but I think our offense needs to execute on the opportunities we have,” she said. “We have to be able to put a goal in early against Oneonta and build our confidence back up so we know we have the ability to score.”

The Knights play home against Oneonta on Friday Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. and Saturday Oct. 4 against New Paltz at 1 p.m.

Women’s soccer prepares for tough weekend of SUNYAC play

Going into SUNYAC openers against SUNY Fredonia and Buffalo State, the Geneseo women’s soccer team had high expectations. The Knights had a 6-1-1 record and were going against two teams that had played average soccer to that point. The Knights were only able to come out of Sept. 26 and Saturday Sept. 27 with one win—losing to Fredonia 2-1 and beating Buffalo State in overtime 2-1.

Despite the tough start to SUNYAC play, head coach Nate Wiley sees the games in a positive light as a whole.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get both of the results that we were looking for,” he said. “But I think we did make the statement that we were looking to make.”

That statement, according to Wiley, was establishing that the Knights as one of the top teams in the conference. Despite the loss to Fredonia, Geneseo dominated possession for the majority of the game. Both of the goals the Knights allowed against the Blue Devils came after long Geneseo possessions.

“I didn’t feel like, at really any point in the game, that they were being dangerous in terms of their possession,” Wiley said. “Unfortunately, soccer is a game where you can dominate the game and have a couple of minor letdowns or slight mistakes and lose the game because of it.”

Against the Bengals, the Knights played a very similar game. They dominated possession and the number of shots on goal. According to Wiley, however, there was one very important difference.

“We don’t need 18 shots [like we had against Fredonia],” he said. “What we need is nine quality shots and I thought we did a better job of that [against Buffalo State].”

Quality shots were difficult to come by against the Blue Devils. Although the Knights took plenty of shots on goal in the second half, very few truly challenged Fredonia’s goalkeeper.

With the first weekend of SUNYAC play in their rearview mirror, the Knights now have to prepare for what should be their toughest weekend all season. Both SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta are strong opponents. That Geneseo has to play both on the road does not bode well for the Knights.

Still, no team in the SUNYAC won both of their games in the opening weekend of conference play. Geneseo sits just one point behind SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland––the Knights still have the highest overall winning percentage in the conference.

After playing at New Paltz and Oneonta on Friday Oct. 3 and Saturday Oct. 4, the Knights will return home for a non-conference game against Elmira College on Oct. 8.

Women's hoops blows by RIT

The Geneseo women’s basketball team has gotten off to a hot start this season. The third-seeded Knights’ record remains without blemish after they defeated the Rochester Institute of Technology on Tuesday Dec. 3 at the Wendy’s College Classic. The tournament is in its 48th iteration and looks to give area teams a chance to compete against one another, as many of the teams play in different conferences. Head coach Scott Hemer said that he likes to use this tournament as a “measuring stick” to see what the team needs to do to get ready for conference play.

Against RIT, the Knights looked ready as ever.

From the get-go, Geneseo was clearly the dominant team against the Tigers. The Knights’ up-tempo style of play proved to be too much for RIT, as the Tigers had seven turnovers, five of which were steals by Geneseo.

“We jumped all over them,” Hemer said. “We looked like the team the coaching staff envisions them being.”

Following a 23-7 scoring run, the Knights went into halftime up 49-25 – the first time all season the Knights closed out the first half with the lead. Hemer said the Knights have struggled keeping the pace of play for all 40 minutes, which explains why, even being up by 22 at one point, he was still expecting more from his team.

Twenty of those first-half points belonged to junior Shannon McGinnis, who had a career night with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Through the first four games, she averages 20.5 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game, good for a double-double each time.

Sophomore Dana Cohen also played a vital role in the game, supplying a career-high nine assists. She averages 4.8 assists per game, the most on the team.

Despite the big win, Hemer does not appear satisfied. Not to say that he is upset, but he said there are always things to improve.

“I am a perfectionist, and I have high expectations,” he said. “If they didn’t have the talent level, it would be a different story.”

With the victory, Geneseo advances to the semifinal game against defending Wendy’s Classic champions University of Rochester at 6 p.m. on Thursday Dec. 5 at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester. The No. 2 seed this year, Rochester defeated SUNY Brockport on Tuesday Dec. 3 with a score of 56-46.

St. John Fisher hands men's basketball first loss

The Geneseo men’s basketball team took on St. John Fisher College Wednesday Dec. 4 in the first round of the 48th annual Wendy’s College Classic tournament. The fifth-seeded Cardinals, who don’t have a single senior on the roster, entered the game with a 1-1 record. Geneseo, at the fourth seed, looked to build off the win against Medaille College Nov. 25.

In the first half, co-captain senior Connor Fedge had five points in as many minutes off the bench while fellow senior Matt Curry made a much bigger impact, scoring 11 points to put the Knights up 38-33 at the half.

Geneseo came out of the locker room very strong, going on a 13-7 run to start the second half – a run that brought juniors Andy Drescher and Gordon Lyons into double figures and gave the Knights an 11-point lead.

St. John Fisher was able to climb back in it, however, and with just over 10 minutes to play, the Cardinals took the lead 55-54 on a 3-pointer from junior Stefan Bock.

From there, the game went back and forth until sophomore Tyler Hart made a jump shot for St. John Fisher as he was fouled. After completing the three-point play, the Cardinals were up 71-69 with 4:04 left.

After that, St. John Fisher was in control. The team went on a 16-10 run to end the game at a score of 87-79. Guard for St. John Fisher junior Adam Ambielli was the leading scorer for either team with 21, and his Cardinals will play SUNY Brockport in the semifinals on Friday Dec 6.

Despite the loss, the Knights still have games to play in the tournament. Geneseo will head to the Rochester Institute of Technology on Friday Dec. 6 to take on the Tigers. After that game, the team will play either Hobart College or Nazareth College on Saturday Dec. 7.

“From that Friday game to that Saturday game, you have to completely change who you’re scouting,” Fedge said.

Luckily for the Knights, one of their biggest strengths is their depth. Nine out of 14 players on the roster are either juniors or seniors.

Geneseo had four players score in double figures: Curry, Drescher, Lyons and co-captain senior Thomas Decker. Fedge finished with eight.

After the Wendy’s tournament, the Knights will play Alfred State on Monday Dec. 9 and then spend three weeks following without a game.

“[The players] try to get together while we’re still on campus during finals week,” Fedge said, “It’s actually a nice break to study and to get together and work out and shoot and play.”

Winter break will also allow Fedge to heal more from a stress fracture in his foot that sidelined him for the first two games of the season. In January 2014, SUNYAC play starts and games will become even more important.

Replacing talent key for indoor track

Despite losing national championship-caliber runners on both the men’s and women’s sides, the theme of this year’s indoor track team will once again be not to rebuild but to reload. “You never replace anybody in this sport. You just simply [say], ‘Next person up,’” head coach for his 10th year Dave Prevosti said. “Fortunately, we have a nice setup because last year we were pretty young, and we all got older and we have an amazing incoming class.”

Arguably the biggest loss from last year’s team on either side is Alyssa Smith ‘12, who won the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field steeplechase event in the spring 2013 semester as a graduate student. In indoor, Smith was a key part of the distance medley relay team that placed third at the NCAA indoor championships. Although Smith, who ran the 1600-meter leg, and Caitlin Kowalewski ‘13, who ran the 800-meter leg, are gone, junior Keira Wood and senior Allison Hoh return to anchor the team and lead the women’s side.

The distance running part of the team will once again feature many cross-country standouts, including senior Lauren McKnight, juniors Jacqueline Huben, Joanna Castrogivanni, Cassie Goodman and Alyssa Knott and freshman Sara Rosenzweig. The Knights’ arsenal of sprinters is boosted by the return of junior Kristen Gottstine from injury and the addition of freshman Erin O’Connor, who starred on the soccer field this fall.

Jumpers will thrive from the experience of senior Carrie Levinn and the talent of freshman Joanna Heath, last year’s New York State Section V long jump champion. Finally, junior Elyssa Slawinski, who is overseas until the spring semester, and senior Danelle Turney will look to improve on last year’s solid throwing campaigns.

On the men’s side, junior Cohen Miles-Rath is the only returning member from last year’s distance medley relay team that also placed third at the national championships. Fresh off of a fifth-place finish in the SUNYAC cross-country meet, Miles-Rath will have many cross-country teammates by his side, including junior Ryan Moynihan, brothers senior Patrick Wortner and sophomore Brendan Wortner and freshman Matt Jorgenson, to form one of the league’s better long-distance groups.

In the field events, juniors Luke Taverne and Phil Longo will again look to dominate competition in the high jump while welcoming freshmen David Pollock and Brendan Macey to the fold in a unit that Prevosti thinks is just as good as the distance runners. Sprinter freshman Austin Donroe should make an immediate impact in a needed area, and lastly, the throwing squad regained senior Zach Markel from injury, who Prevosti says has been the “anchor” of the team for a couple of years.

Both squads will look to assert their talents at the opening meet of the season on Saturday Dec. 7 at the SUNY Brockport’s Early Season Run. The Knights will then be off for break before returning a week before classes begin in January to begin training for the spring semester.

Cross-country to run in 11th NCAA race

It’s business as usual for the Geneseo men’s and women’s cross-country teams as they head to their 11th consecutive national championship, an NCAA record. The Knights received at-large bids from the NCAA to attend the national race in Hanover, Ind. on Saturday Nov. 23. In the regional race on Saturday Nov. 16 at Letchworth State Park, neither team was able to earn an automatic bid, as the men came in third and the women came in fourth.

The teams came into this season unsure of what their destiny would be. The men lost many runners to graduation last year, including All-American Alex Brimstein ‘13, leaving the bulk of this year’s team in the hands of underclassmen. The women, similarly, were very inexperienced prior to this season, with runners stepping out of their comfort zones to uphold the standard.

Head coach Mike Woods saw this transition coming and decided to change things up. He said he kept the intensity of the workouts longer into the season than normal, and the runners responded surprisingly well.

“My athletes fed back to me that they felt fresher,” Woods said.

Even with the change between this year and last on both teams, the expectations never changed.

“There was no question that [we would make it],” co-captain junior Cassie Goodman said about making the NCAAs.

“It is hard to say it was sort of a goal because we kind of expected it [given the streak],” co-captain junior Cohen Miles-Rath said. Goodman came in 15th overall for the women and Miles-Rath placed third for the men in the regional race.

This mindset does not come out of nowhere, though. Woods has been at the helm of this Geneseo cross-country program for 22 years and has learned what it takes to get the best performance from his runners.

“[Woods] being really enthusiastic and motivated to get us there motivates us as a team,” Goodman said.

Now that both teams made it to nationals, they can actually relax now.

“There is not a lot of pressure,” Miles-Rath said. “It is more about the experience,” he added. “We run a little bit but we just, like, hangout,” Goodman said. She also mentioned that the girls take time to go shopping on this trip. “There’s not much more training you can really do,” she added.

The upcoming race is at a course Geneseo has been to within its streak.

“It was a pretty tough course, and the times were kind of slow,” Woods said of the last time he was at the course. He, along with his athletes, however, will not be upset if they walk away without a trophy.

“My expectations for them are to have an enjoyable trip, have fun and race as hard as they possibly can,” Woods said. “Let the chips fall where they may.”

Men's basketball has high hopes for season

Coming off of a 17-10 season, the men’s basketball team is looking strong. Four out of five starters return, and the team only lost two seniors to graduation. “We’re pretty balanced,” head coach Steve Minton said. “I think that we’re pretty deep, and I think that the depth, in particularly at the guard spots, will play in our favor.”

That depth will be important, even in the early part of the season. The Knights have six games before the end of the semester, including the Wendy’s College Classic in Rochester.

“If we meet [our] standards … we’ll find ourselves in a position to be SUNYAC champions,” Minton said. “I would think and hope and expect us to be one of the better teams in the conference this year because of our returning guys, our experience and the skill set that each guy brings.”

Minton’s expectations are well based. Against eventual SUNYAC champion SUNY Cortland in the 2012-2013 season, the Knights went 1-1 in two very closely fought games. That experience will play a key role this season.

“The experience of winning a quarterfinal game in the SUNYAC tournament and getting to the semifinals two years in a row sets a tone for [this team] to recognize the importance of every game and the importance of every little part of the season,” Minton added.

One of the Knights’ goals will be to replace the experience and the leadership of Ryan Riefenhauser ‘13, who started every game for Geneseo the past three seasons. Although Riefenhauser did not put up record-setting numbers, with 9.1 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game in his senior season, his leadership on and off the court is something that really stood out.

“[Riefenhauser] is one of the best leaders I’ve ever coached,” Minton said. “We have had some seniors step up. [Seniors] Connor Fedge and Thomas Decker have done an outstanding job.”

As the captains this year, Fedge and Decker will try to take over that leadership role along with the two other seniors on the roster, Jordan Jones and Matt Curry.

Despite losing Riefenhauser, Minton knows the current seniors are ready to take on this season and lead the team to a SUNYAC title.

“[We need to] put ourselves in a position to just win three games in a row at the end of the season when the tournament comes around,” Minton said. “I certainly think that we can do that.”

Field hockey out after first playoff game

For the second year in a row, Geneseo’s field hockey team could not win its first game of the SUNYAC tournament. The Knights went into the match as the second seed, but come playoff time, especially in a tough division, anyone can win.

On Saturday Nov. 8, Geneseo faced SUNY New Paltz in the semifinals. The Eagles jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, beating Geneseo 3-1 and subsequently ending the Knights’ season.

New Paltz eventually took the entire championship title after beating SUNY Cortland the next day.

Geneseo’s season came to a close with a final record of 13-7 and a second place regular season finish in the conference.

“It’s important that we don’t let this season’s ending loss define what we’ve done all year,” head coach Jess Seren said. “It was the toughest schedule we’ve played in the six seasons I’ve been here. This group has a lot to be proud of.”

The Knights will enter the next season as a considerably different team. Eight seniors will graduate, including Kayla DeAngelis, who set the single-season record for points, and standout defensive player Bridget McGovern. DeAngelis and McGovern’s performance this year, as well as senior Katie Farley and sophomore Sarah Malinak was good enough to earn them a spot on the all-SUNYAC first team.

Senior Kerry Hosford and freshman Liz Doherty were placed on the second team.

Seren sees the losses as an interesting challenge for the upcoming season.

“It will definitely change the dynamic of the team – one player has the ability to do that, let alone eight. But that’s part of the fun of it. We will make adjustments based on who we have coming back and who we have coming in and be ready to go just like we do every year,” Seren said.

Though the team is losing about a third of its roster, numerous starters who had breakout years will return. Sophomore Dayna Mercer followed up her SUNYAC Rookie of the Year achievement with another strong year as goalie, tallying five shutout matches during the season. On offense, sophomore Sarah Malinak excelled, finishing the year with 21 goals and six assists.

While the season comes to an end after coming so close to the title, Seren can only look back with fondness.

“I’ll remember the growth and progress of this team from the start of preseason throughout the course of the fall,” she said. “What they accomplished and how much they’ve grown since August has been significant. They’re such a pleasure to work with, and I’ve never had more fun watching a team in practice or in games. To have been able to be a part of such a special group has been an honor for me.”

Women's soccer falls to Oneonta in SUNYAC championship

The Knights women’s soccer season came to an end on Saturday Nov. 9 in a 4-1 loss to SUNY Oneonta in the SUNYAC championship. Freshman Erin O’Connor had the only goal for the Knights. O’Connor’s play stepped up for the Knights down the stretch, scoring three of her eight total season goals in the playoffs.

“Everyone had momentum knowing we were going to SUNYACs,” O’Connor said, attributing much of her success to her teammates. “We practiced more set plays …  [head coach Nate Wiley] would also give us scouting reports to study.”

O’Connor’s performance throughout the season earned her third-team All-SUNYAC selection. Her play in the tournament earned her a spot on the 2013 SUNYAC All-Tournament team.

SUNYAC also honored midfielder senior Alexa Krebs and defender freshman Alexa Wandy at second-team, and goalkeeper senior Julia Sanger on the third team.

“We had good senior leadership,” Wiley said. “You deal with [losing players] every year … Some years it’s a bigger hit than others. This is one of those years.”

The Knights had eight seniors on the roster for the 2013 season, their most successful season at Geneseo.

“Everyone was really pleased [with the season], especially the seniors that had never made it to the finals,” O’Connor said. “Every step was new to everyone.”

“These are players that we’re going to miss a lot … not only for their play on the field but what they brought to our program off the field,” Wiley said.

Despite the loss of senior leaders including Sanger, Krebs and midfielder Alexa Vojvodic, the Knights are looking strong entering the 2014 season. One thing they will not lose is confidence.

“The success that we had at the end of the year will add to the confidence going into the offseason,” Wiley said. “We’ve got a pretty good [recruiting] class coming in for next year. We’ll be able to fill the gaps and replace those seniors that we lost.”

O’Connor echoed Wiley’s positivity.

“Our seniors were big, but we’ll find players to go in,” O’Connor said. “We [will] all know [Wiley’s] style of play.”

Next season, the Knights will want more than just a SUNYAC championship appearance.

“Going to SUNYAC finals your first year makes you want to do it every year,” O’Connor said.

“Next year [won’t] be about making it to the championship game but what are we doing all the way up to then,” Wiley said. “We’re not going to come in as a six seed next year. We need to come in as a top three or four seed.”

The desire to win and the talent will certainly be there for the Knights in 2014.

As Wiley said, there are “only good things to come.”

Record setting weekend for field hockey

The Geneseo field hockey team has ended regular season play with a record of 13-6-1, and will now begin its quest for a SUNYAC championship title. The record that Geneseo built this season is a reflection of the players on the roster. The Knights have benefited from stellar defensive plays lead by senior Bridget McGovern and goalie sophomore Dayna Mercer. On offense, sophomore Sarah Malinak has emerged as a consistent goal-scoring threat, and senior Kayla DeAngelis has led the Knights with a record-setting year.

DeAngelis established single-season records with 59 points and 24 goals in the regular season. She eclipsed the old record of 43 points set by Michelle Milkovich ‘11 in 2010.  Previously, DeAngelis’ own record was 17 goals, scored during the 2011 campaign.

Geneseo faced University of Rochester, ranked 18th in the country on Saturday Nov. 2. After falling behind 3-2, the Knights answered with four consecutive goals, three of which DeAngelis scored. The Knights won 6-4.

DeAngelis’ nine total points eclipsed the Knights’ single-game record of eight scored by Leslie Howlett ‘03 in the 2001 season. It was also the second time a Geneseo player has scored four goals in one game.

The season wasn’t over, and DeAngelis wasn’t done scoring goals. On Tuesday Nov. 5, in the final regular season match against Ithaca College, the Knights cruised to a 5-1 victory behind two goals and an assist from the record-setting forward.

“[DeAngelis’] ability to finish in the circle this year has been so impressive,” head coach Jess Seren said. “Her speed allows her to beat defenders, so not only does she work to free herself up for the shot, but she’s able to set her teammates up, which is why she leads the team in assists as well.”

The second-seeded Knights will take on third-seeded SUNY New Paltz on Friday Nov. 8 in the semifinals of the SUNYAC tournament hosted by SUNY Cortland.

Seren hopes the players’ season will continue in stellar fashion as they approach the upcoming playoff game.

“At this point in the season, we are who we are. We aren’t looking to make any major changes,” Seren said. “We want to focus on our style of play and executing our game plan. We have the opportunity in practice to go out there and fine tune some things but, more importantly, we want to keep doing what we’re doing, which is playing really good field hockey.”

Despite no postseason, volleyball proud of accomplishments

From beginning to end, the 2013 season wasn’t easy for the Geneseo volleyball team. Being its first season after reinstating the program, head coach Jen Salmon was uncertain if she would fill a roster, let alone of talented student-athletes. And so she began with a squad of 15, who had little to no intercollegiate experience, not yet aware of how enthusiastic, committed and genuine the student-athletes would be.

They’ve come a long way – so much that the Knights appeared to be a completely different team in the final weekend of the 2013 season.

Geneseo earned two wins on Saturday Nov. 2, ending the season on a high note. The team completed the season at 13-19 overall and 2-7 in SUNYAC play.

Regardless of the wins and beyond the numbers, Geneseo’s game play was so different that some coaches approached Salmon and asked, “How did you lose all the matches you lost?”

But what the coaches didn’t know were all the factors that the team faced: losing last season and bringing in a young, inexperienced team.

The Knights approached the Oct. 30 match against Nazareth College with a different mindset that “let them free,” Salmon said. “It gave them the ability to play for the love of the game, to play for fun, so their true colors showed.”

That positive energy continued through Saturday when Geneseo consequently swept Alfred University and claimed a 3-2 victory over St. John Fisher College later that day.

It all clicked that final weekend – the “right time,” Salmon said.

“All of those things we’ve worked on all season, skill wise, combinations and consistency and executing, everything just fell into place,” she said.

“I saw them do things that I haven’t seen them do all season,” she said, exposing their true capability, talent, “who [they] really are.”

But how? Hard work and heart.

And seeing that, Salmon said, is a better ending to the inaugural season than a playoff berth.

Cross-country finishes first and second in SUNYACs

On paper, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams had a day anyone would be proud of. The women came in first, earning the crown of SUNYAC champions, while the men were just edged out by SUNY Cortland, earning second place. While he is proud of the women for becoming SUNYAC champions, not walking away with two SUNYAC titles leaves head coach Mike Woods a little bitter.

“I’m [happy] and I’m not,” he said of the races. “Our guys ran their best race of the year … but we came up empty.”

Junior Ryan Moynihan led the Knights with a time of 25 minutes, 8 seconds, good for third place, followed by junior Cohen Miles-Rath eight seconds later with 25:16 at fifth, both earning first-team All-SUNYAC honors.

It’s not as if the men’s team underperformed, either. Nine runners broke 26 minutes, something Woods has never seen his team do, and it was the fastest pack of the year at 37 seconds.

Sophomore Brendan Wortner also earned All-SUNYAC honors on the second-team and junior Sean Fisher and freshman Alex Kramer on the third-team.

The highlight of the day happened on the women’s side, though.

Junior Keira Wood took first overall in a come-from-behind win down the last 200 meters of the race. Not only was it her best time of the year, but Woods described her race as “perfect.”

“My goal was to make the top seven,” Wood said. “I wasn’t expecting to win.”

It may not seem to be the case, but cross-country is a mental game. Without a sound mind, it is difficult to win, and it wasn’t until this race that Wood was able to hone that part.

“I was really calm before the race,” she said. “I wasn’t overthinking it.”

The team doesn’t win, however, without the performance of the other four runners, who all earned All-SUNYAC honors. Without sophomore Jacquie Huben on first-team, junior Joanna Castrogivanni, junior Cassie Goodman and freshman Sara Rosenzweig on second-team and junior Alyssa Knott on third-team, Wood said she woudn’t have earned the first-place finish.

“Running with my teammates [in the race] has been so helpful,” she said. “Looking around and just seeing all blue and gray – it’s just amazing.”

The season is not over, though. The next race is the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships on Nov. 16 at Letchworth State Park, Geneseo’s home course.

Woods says he is hopeful about this race due to the fact that both the men and women won at this course earlier in the year. Knocking on wood, he said, “We’ve got to do it again.”

SUNYAC title within reach for women's soccer

The women’s soccer team is right where it wants to be: one win away from its first SUNYAC title since 2009. Geneseo upset third-seeded SUNY Cortland in penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 tie in 110 minutes on Saturday Nov. 2.

Both goals came early in the first half with freshman Erin O’Connor striking first in the 18th minute.

“Scoring early was something that we knew would be a tremendous advantage,” head coach Nate Wiley said, “With [Cortland], we don’t score a lot of goals … getting an early goal was certainly good for our confidence.”

That confidence carried over into the penalty kicks, when forward senior Kelly Quinn scored the deciding goal to carry the Knights into the SUNYAC semifinals.

“The biggest thing for us was that Cortland is one of the best teams in our conference,” Wiley said. “Scoring a goal early and giving us the confidence on the road I think is something we’ll hopefully be able to do on Wednesday [Nov. 6 against Buffalo State College].”

In the midweek matchup at Buffalo State, the Knights did just that. Geneseo jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes off goals from O’Connor and freshman Emily Green. The Knights held on to win 2-1.

Although she let in a goal, goalie senior Julia Sanger was instrumental in the victory. Her three second-half saves helped keep the Bengals at bay.

This win was a redemptive one for the Knights, who lost the first matchup with Buffalo State 1-0.

“We’re more of a different team from [the first game] than Buffalo State is,” Wiley said. He added that the players on the team are figuring out the roles they need to play to be successful. One of those players is certainly O’Connor, who scored four goals in the last five games.

The Knights take on top-seeded SUNY Oneonta on Saturday Nov. 9 for the title. This comes after a 2012 campaign in which the Knights went 3-10-3.

“We’re hitting our stride at the right time of year,” Wiley said.

Geneseo Ice Knights season preview

“It's going to be a journey to remember.” That's what Geneseo Ice Knights captain senior Carson Schell had to say about the upcoming hockey season, a smile flashing across his face as he pondered the final season of his college career. Looking at the roster, arguably the deepest team Geneseo has put together since 2010, there's a lot to smile about.

After finishing last season with the second-ranked offense in the SUNYAC, head coach Chris Schultz had some important bodies to replace up front. Gone are goal scorer Corbin Rosmarin, playmaker Kaz Iwamoto and Ryan Bulach, all who graduated in spring 2013.

Schultz, SUNYAC Coach of the Year two of the last three seasons, had plenty of size returning, but what he needed to add was speed.

Immediate and substantial contributions from first-year players have been typical of recent Geneseo teams, and this year won't be any different. Division I junior transfer Ryan Stanimir, a point-per-game player at the end of his junior career in the British Columbia Hockey League, will join the Ice Knights after two seasons at Sacred Heart University.

Incoming freshmen Connor Anthoine, who put up 119 points in four seasons in the Eastern Junior Hockey League, and Jack Ceglarski, coming off a 67-point campaign in 44 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, look to see time this year.

While competition will be fierce on offense, the Ice Knights defense is wide open. In the spring the Knights lost Colin de Jersey and Blake O'Connor, each of whom played upwards of 25 minutes a night, and Brandon Angotti, who developed into one of the Ice Knights' best shut-down defenders by the end of last season.

With only junior Jack Caradonna, sophomore Nate Brown and sophomore Matt Hutchinson remaining, the team is guaranteed to see new faces at the blue line on opening night.

Shutdown defenseman first-year Derek Stahl should step in immediately to fill the lockdown roles left behind by O'Connor and Angotti. Stahl was named Defensive Player of the Year in the EJHL last season.

Sophomore Matt Solomon, who transferred to Geneseo along with Stanimir from Sacred Heart, brings a 210-pound frame and a heavy shot to the Geneseo blue line, posting 67 points in 77 games in the EJHL before attending Sacred Heart.

Geneseo's success will hinge primarily on the continued success of goalkeeper junior Bryan Haude, who recorded three shutouts last season as a sophomore to snap a seven-year shutout drought in Geneseo.

Last season's playoff run stemmed from the breakout seasons of several key players.  Senior Jonathan Sucese had a coming out party in 2013, pivoting a line with sophomores David Ripple and Ryan Donnelly as one of the team's most consistent players. If kept together to start the season, it's a line that could be one of the conference's best.

Senior Garry Childerhose and sophomore AJ Sgaraglio got their first real opportunities toward the end of last season after recovering from injuries. Childerhose showed the goal-scoring touch he was recruited for and became a regular, while Sgaraglio became a spark plug on the fourth line, who could see a promotion as the season progresses.

With special teams like last season, the Ice Knights are well positioned going into this season - if they stay healthy. Injuries limited key contributors last season, including juniors Tyler Brickler, Zach Martin and Justin Scharfe - all players Geneseo will need big years from. Without them, a disproportionate load of the offense automatically falls to big guns like senior Zachary Vit. In a conference teeming with quality goaltenders, that's not a recipe for success. The Knights can't afford the injury plague that has devastated them for the last two seasons.

If injuries can be avoided, this is a team ready to win now. SUNY Oswego will be strong, as always, but the Lakers graduated three of the best players in the college's history and five of the conference's top ten scorers. Oswego will retool, but the team is in transition by its standards.  SUNY Plattsburgh will be a very similar team, a team that the Knights could skate with last year. This Knights team, on paper, is better.

The time to win is now for Geneseo.

“We know what we have, and we know what we have to do to succeed,” Schell said.

The talent is here, and with an outdoor game scheduled for Dec. 15 at Frontier Field, the spotlight is here too. The campaign for Geneseo's fourth SUNYAC title begins against Morrisville State College, and it begins at 7 p.m. Friday Nov. 1 in the Ira S. Wilson Arena.