CORTLAND, NY – The second-seeded Cortland women's lacrosse team used a 13-0 run from late in the first quarter until just over five minutes left in regulation to pull away with a 15-2 home victory over third-seeded New Paltz in the semifinals of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament on Wednesday evening on Grady Field.
Cortland improves to 13-4 on the season and advances to face top-seeded Oswego in the SUNYAC finals on Saturday in a rematch of last year's championship game. New Paltz finishes its season with a 12-6 record.
Ashley Melillo (Massapequa) led Cortland with six points on three goals and three assists, while also contributing three caused turnovers and four ground balls.
Brooke Elizalde (Ronkonkoma/Connetquot) added three goals and two assists, and recorded three caused turnovers and two ground balls. Elizalde also reached 100 career points in the contest.
Sierra Natoli (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) and
Sydney Elizalde (Ronkonkoma/Connetquot) both had three goals, while
Emma Dempsey (Brewerton/Paul V. Moore) finished with two goals and two assists.
Trinity Parks made seven goals in goal to secure the victory, while also surpassing 200 career saves.
Emma Pagano had two caused turnovers and scooped up three ground balls for the Red Dragons, and
Taylor Mullins (Penn Yan/Penn Yan Academy) finished with six draw controls.
Ava Padilla and Lexi Atwater each provided a goal for New Paltz, while Allison Beattie added an assist. Amy Whitman had three caused turnovers and two ground balls for the Hawks.
Cortland opened the scoring with two goals by
Brooke Elizalde on back-to-back possessions, with both goals assisted by Melillo, to take a 2-0 lead with 11:39 left in the first quarter. New Paltz cut the lead in half with 9:00 left in the frame on a shot from Padilla from the right side in front of goal after a feed from the left by Beattie.
Neither team scored over the next eight minutes, before a strong defensive play in the final minute by
Brooke Elizalde to knock a pass out of the air from behind the New Paltz goal right into the stick of Melillo, who collected the turnover and fired a shot into the goal to give Cortland a 3-1 lead after one frame.
The Red Dragons outscored the Hawks by a 4-0 margin in the second quarter, with Melillo scoring twice and
Brooke Elizalde adding another goal to both complete their hat tricks, and Dempsey netting her first goal of the game to make it 7-1 at halftime.
Cortland added six goals in the third quarter, three by Natoli and one each by Dempsey,
Kristen Javenes (North Rockland), and
Sydney Elizalde, for a 13-1 advantage into the final quarter.
Sydney Elizalde scored the Red Dragons' two goals in the fourth quarter, both player-up goals after green cards on New Paltz, giving Cortland a 15-1 lead. With the final action of the game, Atwater tallied a free-position goal for the Hawks to complete the scoring with 19 seconds left.
Over the final three quarters of the contest, Parks made six saves in goal for Cortland, including two saves on free-position shots in the final period. Meanwhile, the Red Dragons' defense had four caused turnovers in the final frame to secure the win.
