Blue Devil Kristie Kleine prepares to shoot on the Cortland net.
Photo courtesy of Mary Laing / Special to The Leader
MICHELLE HALE
Special to The Leader
On Saturday the women’s lacrosse team faced the No.1 team in the nation, the Cortland Red Dragons. The Blue Devils suffered a tough loss to the Red Dragons with a score of 14-2.
Despite the loss, the Blue Devils were playing for more than just a win. The team was playing for their seniors and coach Chris Case, who recently announced that he will be giving up his head coaching position next spring.
Both Fredonia goals were scored unassisted by junior attack Marissa Cussins, who now has 48 goals for the season. Kristen Ohberg from Cortland scored five of the goals for the Red Dragons.
Fredonia was unable to produce chances in the attacking end. Fredonia had seven shots on goal, while Cortland had 21.
“Cortland’s defense had really good communication and organization,” said freshman Kristie Kleine. “They worked well as a team and that made it really hard for us to move the ball around and get in behind them.”
The two Fredonia seniors, Mary Bruton and Chelsea Maderer, played their last home game at University Stadium. They were honored during a pre-game ceremony, where they also recognized Case for his contribution to the women’s program throughout his career as head coach.
“We know our areas of weakness from today and we have this week to sort out those issues in order to be fully prepared for what is coming this weekend,” said senior Maderer.
This Saturday concluded Fredonia’s regular season in SUNYAC play. They will head into playoffs with a record of 11-5 overall, and 5-3 in the SUNYAC conference. Cortland will be hosting the Women’s SUNYAC tournament next Friday and Saturday. Fredonia will be playing Geneseo at 3 p.m. If Fredonia can defeat Geneseo on Friday in the semifinal round, they will be in the finals on Saturday and will possibly play Cortland once again.
“We’re going to use this week to fix all of our mistakes and focus on things that Geneseo might throw at us on Friday. We need to challenge each other so we are ready for this weekend,” said Bruton.