ANTHONY GETTINO
Sports Editor
This past weekend had lots to be excited about for Fredonia State athletics.
We had our women’s soccer team competing in the first round of the SUNYAC Playoffs, and both the men’s and women’s cross country teams competing in the SUNYAC Championship.
For the women’s soccer team, they traveled to New Paltz Saturday to face off against the fourth seed of the SUNYAC playoffs. They were able to advance to the next round after a 1-1 tie. The team was able to move on thanks to a 4-3 advantage on penalty kicks.
Katie Sellers was the Blue Devil to score in regulation, scoring in the first three minutes of the match. Jordan Barrett, Lexi Lindamer, Sophie Richiusa and Talia deFay were the Blue Devils that converted their penalty kicks.
The team will now travel to face the first seed in the playoffs Wednesday when they play Geneseo.
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Cortland Saturday for the SUNYAC Championship. On the men’s side, Kyle Campbell was the first Blue Devil across the finish line, placing 15th overall. This earned him third team All-SUNYAC honors. Anthony Ruiz, Josh Walters, Ethan Pocock and Zack Peterman were the other scorers for the team. They placed fifth overall in the meet.
The women’s team finished ninth in the meet. Ally Battaglia placed 42nd to pace the Blue Devils. Elizabeth Gloss, Vanessa Ryhal, Kristin Kelemen and Evelyn Smith were the other scorers for the team.
Kristi Kelemen was able to take home hardware from the meet as well. She was one of two female winners of the SUNYAC Elite 20 award, which honors the person with the highest cumulative GPA in each of the championship races.
Both teams have this next weekend off before traveling to Geneseo for the Niagara Regional Championships.
Fredonia also had men’s hockey, women’s volleyball and both men’s and women’s swimming and diving competing in regular season matches.
Men’s hockey opened their season by splitting their weekend tournament. In the first game of the Buffalo State Tournament the team fell to Wilkes 2-5. Johnny Malandruccolo and Antonio Demacopoulos were the scorers for the Blue Devils.
The second game was a 4-0 win over Albertus Magnus College. Gregg Lee, Bryce Witman, David Sudbrink and Matt Letmanski each picked up a goal in the shutout.
The team will have two games this weekend, both against Trine at home. Saturday’s game marks the first Tanner Kahlau Memorial Game and will start at 4pm.
The women’s volleyball team finished out their regular season this past week. Their Tuesday match against Pitt-Bradford was a 3-1 victory, while the second match Friday was a 0-3 loss to St. John Fisher.
Saturday’s matches against Elmira and Nazareth were cancelled.
Emily Jones, Christie Ackendorf and Brinn Shaughnessy led the team in kills in the matches.
Tuesday evening, the team will host their first round matchup in the SUNYAC Tournament against the fifth seeded New Paltz. The match will begin at 6 p.m.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Buffalo State this past Saturday.
The men’s team was unable to secure the win, losing 111-131.
Tyler Conti won the 500 and 1,000 meter freestyle, while Ian Hilldale won the 50, 100 and 200 meter freestyle swims. Samuel Cottrell won the 100 and 200 meter breaststrokes.
The women’s team was able to win their match over Buffalo State 138-106.
McKayla Polowy won both the 500 and 1,000 meter freestyle, Mindy Doktor won the 100 and 200 fly stroke, and Kayla Hagen won the 100 and 200 backstroke.
The team was also able to win both the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.
Both teams will host Grove City Saturday in the Natatorium.