[metaslider id=6280]
MORGAN MARSHALL
Special to The Leader
The Blue Devils came out behind after their first week of play following Spring Break. The women traveled to play at Nazareth College last Wednesday. Their rally fell short with a loss of 11-10.
Fredonia fell seven goals behind but was able to make it a one-goal game in the second half. The team was unable to make the equalizing finish.
The Blue Devil goals were scored by sophomore midfielder Audrey Yokopovich, freshman midfielder Samantha Spiess, junior midfielder Kristie Kleine and senior attack Katie Miller. Yokopovich led the Devils with three goals, seven ground balls and one draw control. Spiess, Kleine and Miller all contributed with two goals each. Fredonia’s sophomore goalkeeper Nicole Burrows made 11 saves for the Devils.
On Saturday, the Devils faced the No. 1 ranked defending national champions, Cortland, at home. The Blue Devils held off Cortland in the first half of the game and led, holding the team off 5-4. At the end of the first half, Cortland was ahead 5-7. Although the final outcome of the game was a 9-19 loss for Fredonia, the Blue Devils took it as a learning experience.
“Saturday was a tough loss, but we can for sure pull some positives out of it. We stayed with the number one team in the nation for the first half, and even rose above them for a few minutes,” said Miller. “This was huge for our team confidence. We just need to focus on playing to our potential all 60 minutes in the game.”
Fredonia’s nine goals were scored by Kleine with three, Spiess with two, Miller with two and Yokopovich with two.
Yokopovich also led with five draw controls for the team. Burrows made eight saves.
“Yesterday was a big game for us. It was a great feeling to be beating the number one team at a certain point in the first half,” said senior captain Jessica Tuttle. “Although we did not come out on top, it showed us that we are more than capable of of keeping up with tough teams, and that we have a chance to do well with the rest of our season.”
“The last couple of games show that we can keep up with good teams, but we still have more to work on,” said freshman midfielder Jade Williams. “I think that we are improving and using a lot of the talent we have on this team, and we can only get better from here.”
The Blue Devils played another nationally ranked team yesterday at home versus No. 16, Brockport, and have yet another game against nationally ranked No. 14, St. John Fisher, tomorrow at 5 p.m.