CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland women's lacrosse team outscored Western Connecticut State 14-0 over the game's final 40 minutes and the Red Dragons defeated the Wolves, 15-3, in the season opener for both teams at Grady Field. The game was originally scheduled to be played at WestConn but was moved to Cortland due to the weather.
 
Freshman Sydney Elizalde (Ronkonkoma/Connetquot) led Cortland with four goals and two assists in her collegiate debut. Chelsey Weber (Holtsville/Sachem East) scored three goals and Bella Dembinski (Holbrook/Sachem East) finished with two goals and one assist. Emma Dempsey (Brewerton/Paul V. Moore) and Rachel Rempe (Aquebogue/Riverhead) tallied two goals apiece.
 
Trinity Parks (Port Crane/Chenango Forks) made six saves in goal for the Red Dragons. Elizalde led Cortland with four ground balls.
 
For WestConn, Isabella Pota scored twice and Madison Ratchford scored once. Norah Zuidema made 12 saves. Pota won five draw controls and Ratchford won four draws.
 
Cortland struck first on a Natalie Bennett (Latham/Shaker) goal just 55 seconds into the game, but WestConn scored the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead. Ratchford scored with 11:53 left in the first, followed by Pota goals at the 9:51 mark of the first and 11:41 mark of the second, the latter with the Wolves up a player.
 
Dembinski scored with 10 minutes left in the quarter and Dempsey scored with 40 seconds remaining to send the teams into the locker room, and away from some snowy conditions, tied at 3-3.
 
Elizalde scored all four of her goals as part of Cortland's nine-goal third quarter. Weber scored once in the third and twice in the fourth.
 
WestConn outshot Cortland in the first half, 14-12, but Cortland dominated the final two quarters with a 25-3 shot advantage to finish with a 37-17 shot margin overall.
 
Cortland hosts nationally 23rd-ranked Ithaca Saturday at noon.