CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Geneseo women's lacrosse team overcame an early 4-0 deficit in earning an 11-9 victory versus nationally 20th-ranked Cortland Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the SUNYAC Women's Lacrosse Tournament. The Red Dragons dropped to 14-4 with the setback and await a possible NCAA Div. III at-large playoff bid. The Knights improved to 14-4, secured their first-ever SUNYAC title and earned an automatic NCAA Div. III playoff berth.

Graduate student Amy Hoeffner (Bay Shore) led Cortland with three goals and two assists and won a game-high 11 draw controls. Junior Toni Cashman (East Moriches/Westhampton Beach) tallied two goals and two assists, while graduate student Hannah Keech (Penn Yan/Penn Yan Academy) also netted two goals. Senior Rachel Janis (Laurel/Mattituck) and freshman Rachel Rempe (Aquebogue/Riverhead) each scored a goal, and graduate student Lauren Hopsicker (Burnt Hills/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) chipped in with two assists.

Freshman goalie Margaret Morgan (New Fairfield, CT) registered five saves for the Red Dragons. Graduate student Kayla Sweeney (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) finished with two ground balls and two caused turnovers, and graduate student Amanda Squillini (Stony Point/North Rockland) scooped up three ground balls.

Freshman Alaina Reina (Chili/Churchville-Chili) paced Geneseo's offense with four goals, all coming in the first half. Sophomore Molly Brown (Cazenovia) recorded three goals and an assist, junior Emily Salanger (Syracuse/Liverpool) netted three goals, sophomore Sophie Lyko (Macedon/Palmyra-Macedon) scored a goal and junior Megan Cook (Massapequa) contributed three assists.

Graduate student Maggie Rosaschi (Highland Mills/Monroe-Woodbury) started in goal for the Knights, stopping one shot in 7:04. Junior Emily DeJohn (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) played the final 52:56, making nine saves. Junior Tricia Curran (Hamburg/Frontier), the tournament Most Valuable Player, finished with six ground balls, four draws and two caused turnovers. Senior Meg Seeley (Cazenovia) secured three ground balls and caused two turnovers, senior Caroline Fitzgerald (East Northport/Northport) had three caused turnovers and two ground balls and junior Caitlyn Korzeniewski (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) collected three ground balls.

Cortland jumped out to a 4-0 lead just 7:04 into the game as Keech and Hoeffner each netted a pair of goals, prompting Geneseo to make a goalie change. From that point, the Knights closed the game with an 11-5 scoring advantage.

Geneseo scored five of the next six goals, four by Reina, to pull even at 5-5 at the half. After Brown and Rempe traded goals to open the third quarter, the Knights went ahead for good on back-to-back goals from Brown and Lyko. Cortland closed to within 9-8 at the end of the quarter as Hoeffner and Cashman wrapped goals around a Salanger score. Salanger made it 10-8 at 13:56 of the fourth quarter, and Brown pushed the lead to 11-8 with her goal 28 seconds later. The Red Dragons were denied quality scoring chances throughout the quarter and managed a last-second goal from Cashman for the 11-9 final.

Joining Curran on the all-tournament team were Reina, Brown, Seeley, Salanger and DeJohn of Geneseo; Cashman, Squillini, Hoeffner and Keech of Cortland; Courtney Cunningham of Brockport and Isabella Lembo of Oswego.

Cortland sophomore Ella Pastore (Brewster) received the SUNYAC Elite 20 Award for having the highest cumulative GPA at the championship site.
 
Geneseo 11, Cortland 9
 
Team                  1-2-3-4       Final
Geneseo            3-2-4-2          11
Cortland             5-0-3-1            9
 
Scoring (Goals-Assists):
Geneseo: Alaina Reina 4-0, Molly Brown 3-1, Emily Salanger 3-0, Sophie Lyko 1-0, Megan Cook 0-3
Cortland: Amy Hoeffner 3-2, Toni Cashman 2-2, Hannah Keech 2-0, Rachel Rempe 1-0, Rachel Janis 1-0, Lauren Hopsicker 0-2
 
Goalkeepers:
Geneseo: Maggie Rosaschi, 1 save (4 GA in 7:04), Emily DeJohn, 9 saves (5 GA in 52:56)
Cortland: Margaret Morgan, 5 saves (11 GA in 60:00)
 
Shots: Geneseo 26, Cortland 23
Ground Balls: Geneseo 21, Cortland 16
Clears: Cortland 20-of-20, Geneseo 20-of-26
Draw Controls: Cortland 15, Geneseo 8
Caused Turnovers: Geneseo 14, Cortland 8
Turnovers: Cortland 20, Geneseo 18

Records after game: Cortland (Red Dragons) 14-4 (ranked 20th nationally in Div. III); Geneseo (Knights) 14-4