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.”

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.

2-0 weekend lifts women's soccer to playoffs

The goal was simple for the Geneseo women’s soccer team: win two games. The Knights were able to accomplish this goal by beating both SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Plattsburgh on Oct. 25 and Oct. 26, respectively. In doing this, they clinched the sixth and final seed in the SUNYAC tournament and will play at SUNY Cortland on Saturday Nov. 2.

“Our confidence is as high as it’s been all year,” head coach Nate Wiley said. “It’s all about playing well.”

Geneseo outshot Potsdam 15-2 on its way to the 1-0 victory; more than half those shots were on goal. Geneseo only had 13 shots, however, compared to Plattsburgh’s 23 in the second game. Despite that difference, the Knights came out on top 3-2.

It is the first time this season that the Knights won two games in one weekend. Two wins right before the conference tournament is a huge confidence booster for the Knights, despite losing a relatively meaningless game against Elmira College 3-2 on Tuesday Oct. 29.

“It takes some time for teams to gel,” Wiley said, “We’ve figured some things out [throughout the season].”

Freshman Erin O’Connor stood out in both conference games. She scored in both games, bringing her season total to five goals. They were the first goals she had scored since Sept. 28.

“This last weekend should be a confidence booster for her,” Wiley said. He emphasized that O’Connor’s success was all part of a greater team effort, saying, “It has to do with the type of balls we’re playing for her.”

The Knights will try to maintain this mindset in the match against Cortland. Geneseo drew with the 2012 SUNYAC champions 1-1 earlier in the season, something that keeps Wiley optimistic.

“If we’re playing good soccer, I don’t think there are too many teams out there that can beat us,” he said. “We don’t want to make too many changes.”

If the Knights win on Saturday, they would play Buffalo State College on Wednesday Nov. 6. In their meeting this year, Buffalo State edged out Geneseo 1-0.

Despite being the lower seed, the Knights do have some statistics on their side. Mainly, they have outscored opponents 9-4 in games when they have at least one full day of rest before and after.

If Geneseo wins its next three games, the Knights will be crowned SUNYAC Champions and would make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.