OSWEGO, NY — On Sunday, April 26th, the Oswego State Women’s Hockey team announced their 2020-21 captains. Philomena Teggart and Aislinn McAleer will be the captains of the Lakers next season. Both players will be seniors next season and will be playing in their 4th season with the program. Philomena Teggart, the 5’ 7” defenseman from Pickering, Ontario, Canada, has 37 career points (12 goals & 25 assists) in 78 career games played over the past three seasons. This past year, Teggart finished third on the team in points and led defenseman with 21 points (9 goals & 12 assists). Aislinn McAleer, the 5’ 4” forward from Manasquan, New Jersey, has played in 60 career games and has recorded 6 points (2 goals & 4 assists) in the past three seasons. The forward recorded a goal and one assist last season, the goal coming against SUNY Cortland in a 3-2 win. These two players look to lead the Lakers in another successful season as the group were runner-up in the NEWHL conference this past season. WTOP 10 will continue coverage on Oswego State Athletics into the summer as the start of the fall sports season looms overhead.
Picture from Oswego Women’s Hockey Twitter Page
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Men’s basketball grab tenth SUNYAC win
GENESEO, N.Y. — The Oswego State men’s basketball team took a trip southwest to Geneseo to take on the Knights on Tuesday. A rematch of the game played in Oswego a week prior saw a much closer game between the teams. Oswego would prevail with a 78-68 win. The Knights got going quick, grabbing the first eleven points of the game before Brendon Mulson would hit a three to get the Lakers on the board. The teams would trade baskets before the Lakers would start to close the gap. With six minutes remaining the Lakers went on a 12-4 run to close the gap to 36-38 going into the half. Jeremiah Sparks had thirteen in the first half lead the Lakers. The Lakers shot 12-30 (40%) from the field in the first half, and 4-14 (29%) from three. Geneseo shot 16-27 (59%) from the field in the first half.
The second half was much more even for both sides. Oswego slightly edging Geneseo in points 16-13 over the first 10 minutes to get the score to 52-51. Oswego would take over from there, with just under five minutes remaining in the game, Julien Crittendon made two free throws to extend the lead to 66-55. Crittendon had 15 of Oswego’s final 26 points and grab victory for the team 78-68. Crittendon led the team with 19 points. Jeremiah Sparks had 18 points to go with 6 rebounds. Christian Simmons had a double-double on the game, 14 points and 14 rebounds, and Devin Green was a rebound shy of his own with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Oswego handed Geneseo theirs fourth straight SUNYAC loss after the Knights came into the game a week ago undefeated in the conference.
Oswego now has a record of 16-1 (10-0 SUNYAC) and their win streak sits at thirteen games. The Lakers next game is home in the Max Ziel Gymnasium against the Oneonta Red Dragons. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m. WTOP10 will have coverage of the game starting just before tip.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO STATE ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
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Oswego State Softball Gets Set For Home Opener
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego Softball plays their first games in over two weeks, when they play their home opening doubleheader Friday, April 9th against Geneseo at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The Lakers come in 1-1 after a doubleheader split at RIT back on Monday, March 22nd.
First pitch in game one will mark the first home game of Gabrielle Rivers’ head coaching career. Rivers was an assistant coach for four years at Le Moyne, and was hired as the Lakers softball head coach in the summer of 2019. The Lakers softball team did not compete in a single game before the 2020 season was cancelled, and this will be their first home game since April 22nd, 2019. The Lakers had 6 games over an 11 day period either cancelled or postponed, as Friday’s doubleheader marks the Lakers return to action. The Lakers had standouts at the plate in the doubleheader at RIT 18 days ago, Zoe Mennig was 4-7 with a double, 4 RBIs and a run, Madelana Wrubel was 2-5 with 2 doubles and 2 runs, and Taylor DuBois was 2-6 with 3 RBIs. Oswego also got a major contribution on the rubber from pitcher Madison Hoeflich who threw a 7 inning complete game in which she allowed 7 hits and 3 runs in the win. Look for the three batters to make a contribution Friday, and Hoeflich to shutdown opposing batters if she is called upon to start.
The Laker bats face a tall task in this 2-1 Geneseo Knights team. Geneseo was picked first in the preseason SUNYAC coaches poll, and while the Knights have been lacking with the bat, their pitching has been phenomenal. Geneseo is 2-1 even though they have scored 8 runs total through 3 games, and have scored only 1 run twice. Lauren Kersch won SUNYAC Pitcher of the Week after throwing a complete game and only allowing one run and one hit, which both came on a solo home run. Besides the one pitch, Kersch dominated University of Rochester in her first collegiate start, and looks like she can be an elite level arm for the Knights for years to come. Kersch has not been the only arm that has been dominant for the Knights, Nicole Schwartz who threw game one of Geneseo’s doubleheader at Rochester, also threw a complete game, she allowed 6 hits but did not allow a run.
Oswego Softball plays for the first time in 18 days, and plays their first home game in nearly 2 years on Friday, April 9th at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. against Geneseo. Viewers can check out all the action on WTOP 10.
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SUNYAC Conference Announces New Format for Fall 2020
OSWEGO, NY — On Wednesday, June 17th, the State University of New York Athletic Conference announced changes to the Fall 2020 Season regarding four sports. This change affects women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, and both men’s and women’s soccer, all sports offered by the conference. This decision was made Monday, June 15th, by the SUNYAC Board of Directors during its weekly conference meeting. The Board is made up of one representative from each member school, making up 10 individuals. This announcement has two separate changes that comes a few months before the fall season that will allow division three athletics to continue.
The first switch pertains to women’s tennis moving to the Spring 2021 season, which would align the conference with the current NCAA Division III tournament that already takes place in the spring season. The conference has eight of their ten members in the women’s tennis conference as Buffalo State and Potsdam do not offer the sport. The SUNYAC has been looking to make this change for several years, so the current situation allows the conference to evaluate the potential move. Some conferences have their season in the fall due to weather in the region, making their conference champion play for a NCAA title in the spring season.
For the other three sports, the SUNYAC has decided to split the conference into two different divisions that will compete against each other during the regular season. The divisions are split using Interstate 81 in Central New York, that goes from Oswego to Cortland. The West Division will contain Brockport, Buffalo State, Fredonia, Geneseo, and Oswego while the East Division will consist of Cortland, New Paltz, Oneonta, Plattsburgh, and Potsdam. The change will affect volleyball along with men’s and women’s soccer. Each team would play every opponent in their given division twice with a home and home series. At the end of the season, the top two teams of each division will secure a playoff berth to the SUNYAC playoffs. The same playoff format will be used from years past with all semi final games being played on November 4th, and all finals games being played on November 7th across all three sports. The main reason for this switch was of course to decrease travel time and costs as teams would not need to stay overnight for long road trips. The other benefit is over course the fact that players and team staff will be in contact with less individuals. This move can also be found around many other division III conferences like the NEAC, the conference Morrisville is a part of.
The conference has also stated that the institutions still have the authority to schedule non-conference match ups outside of division play. SUNYAC continued to say that colleges could schedule games against opponents from the other division, with these games not having any affect on the conference standings.
Moving forward, Oswego State Laker fans can expect fall sport’s schedules to be released by the end of July. The Lakers kicked off their season last year around the end of August. Till then, WTOP 10 will continue to update readers on all off season news to keep you up to date on your favorite Oswego State team.
