MICHELLE HALE
Assistant Sports Editor
Fredonia’s women’s lacrosse team ended its SUNYAC championship hunt by falling short to the Cortland Red Dragons, the defending champions, this past weekend. Although the team didn’t win the SUNYAC title, Fredonia’s women’s lacrosse is in the running to be the NCAA champion team.
On Friday the Blue Devils faced the Geneseo Knights in the SUNYAC Semifinal match. The Knights are currently ranked number 18 in the country right behind Fredonia, which is 17, according to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll. Fredonia came out on top with a final score of 8-3.
Fredonia was able to take on an early lead with the help of sophomore attack Emily Polizzi leading the Blue Devils scoring. Polizzi had a career-high of five goals. The Knights were able to shut down Fredonia’s top scorers, Katie Kleine and Marissa Cussins, and limit them to only one and two assists, respectively.
Other Fredonia goals were scored by freshman midfielder Audrey Yokopovich, sophomore midfielder Kristie Kleine and senior attack Shelby DePew. Freshman goaltender Nicole Burrows was credited with seven saves.
This win sent the Blue Devils into the SUNYAC final game, which faced the number one seed, SUNY Cortland. Cortland advanced to the finals with a win against Brockport 21-8 on Friday, as well. Fredonia was unable to defeat the 16-time defending champion of the SUNYAC title and was defeated 15-6 on Saturday.
This was the first time in Fredonia women’s lacrosse history that they made a SUNYAC championship game appearance.
Cussins scored one minute and 34 seconds into the game to give the Blue Devils their only lead of the game. DePew and Polizzi continued their scoring streaks by adding one goal each to the score. Kristie Kleine added a hat trick, and sister Katie Kleine had yet another assist. Junior attack Katie Miller also had an assist, and Burrows had eight saves.
Since Cortland won the SUNYAC title, the team received an automatic bid into the tournament. Fredonia was expected to receive an invitation, as well, and it got what was expected — an at-large bid.
Fredonia will play a home game on May 10 at 1 p.m. at University Turf Stadium in the NCAA tournament against Denison University. Denison will be traveling to Fredonia for the second round of the NCAA tournament from Granville, Ohio. The Big Red had an automatic bid into the tournament after defeating Oberlin in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament championship.
The Blue Devils and the Big Red share only two common opponents, Wooster and Mount Union. Both suffered a loss to Mount Union, and Denison went 1-1 against Wooster, while Fredonia defeated them.
This will be the third appearance Fredonia has made into the NCAA tournament in the program’s history, while it is the 17th appearance for the Big Red. The winner of this meeting will play the winner of Washington & Lee and Sewanee on May 16.