A Fredonia player fights for the ball during last tuesday’s game.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Adinolfe / Staff Photographer.
ERIN BISCHOFF
Special to The Leader
The Blue Devil women’s lacrosse team beat the St. John Fisher Cardinals 10-7 in a non-conference home match as junior Marissa Cussins achieved an impressive 11 goals in two games this past Tuesday.
This is the second straight season that Fredonia has topped St. John Fisher — a team ranked No. 14 nationally by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association, while the Blue Devils are not currently ranked. They then defeated SUNY Oswego on Saturday in the first match of the SUNYAC Conference, earning the women their fifth and sixth straight wins of the season.
Goals in Tuesday’s game were contributed by four Blue Devils, with Cussins scoring most of the goals. She had six goals throughout the game and was credited with scoring the game-winning point in the team’s double-overtime match against St. John Fisher last season.
Other scorers included junior midfielder Kristie Kleine, junior attack Katie Glagolev and freshman attack Emily Polizzi. Cussins, Kleine and Polizzi all scored within a nine-minute period in the first half, bringing the score to 3-0 and giving the Blue Devils a comfortable lead against the Cardinals. Cussins contributed three more goals while Polizzi put in one, bringing the final score of the first half to 7-1, after a quick shot by Cardinal Jill Zerillo in the final minute.
Cussins scored two more goals in the second half, giving her 11 goals in the last two games, and 13 against St. John Fisher over the last two seasons. Freshman goalkeeper Jessica Zagari kept the Cardinals at bay with two saves in the final half, bringing the Blue Devils to a 10-7 victory.
Saturday’s match against the Oswego Lakers took place at Cazenovia College due to wet turf at Oswego. The game brought the Fredonia Lacrosse program their first win of the SUNYAC Conference, with a final score of 10-8.
Trailing the Lakers by two in the first half, Cussins and junior defender Katie Kleine scored two goals to tie the game by halftime at 5-5. Cussins finished with five goals, while freshman attack Sam Owen contributed one. Zagari improved her record to 6-0 when she saved four shots in the first half of the match.
Not only was Saturday’s match Fredonia’s first in conference play, but it was also a reunion for the Kleine sisters — Katie, Kristie and Oswego’s senior Kassie Kleine, who contributed three goals to the final score. This was the first time the girls have competed on the same field since Kassie’s senior year in high school, when the sisters competed on their high school soccer team in Cazenovia.
With an overall record of 6-2 and 1-0 in the SUNYAC Conference, the Blue Devil Lacrosse team competed in a non-conference home game Tuesday, April 1 at 6 p.m. against Elmira, and will return to the SUNYAC competition next Saturday afternoon against New Paltz. Both games are scheduled for the turf field at University Stadium.