The Oswego State Softball team takes the field Monday, March 22nd, for the first time since May 4th, 2019. The Lakers go on the road to take on RIT in a Monday afternoon doubleheader slated to take place at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Lakers nearly 700 day off season is shown in roster changes. Four of the 14 girls who appeared in the most recent game, against Cortland in the SUNYAC playoffs are on the roster this year. The 2021 Oswego softball roster features ten newcomers along with seven upperclassmen who return from the 2019 team. The upperclassmen on the team will have a big leadership role this year because the two classes have not seen game action in their college careers.
The Tigers of RIT also have not yet played a game this season, but they were able to play ten in 2020 when they went 7-3 overall. The Tigers feature a very experienced team with nine upperclassmen plus two graduate students. Oswego starts their season with four games in Rochester, with two games against RIT at 3:00 and 5:00 Monday, March 22, as well as 1:00 and 3:00 Sunday March 28 at St. John Fisher. All of these games are non-conference as SUNYAC play does not start until April 1st.
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Women’s Hockey Season Recap
PLATTSBURGH, NY — Women’s Hockey faced off against the Plattsburgh Cardinals on Saturday in the NEWHL championship game. Oswego would get on the board first to get on the board thanks to a shot from Philomena Teggart. This however would not last as the Cardinals would net two to take the lead heading into the second period. Plattsburgh would score four more to secure another NEWHL championship and secure their bid into the NCAA Division III Women’s Hockey tournament. This loss ends Oswego’s season as the Lakers finished with an overall record of 16-7-4. These 16 wins ties their win total from the 2016-2017 season as the Lakers were apart of the ECHC West conference for the final time that season.
Oswego was led by freshman Megan Teachout tallied 29 points, 13 goals and 16 assists, in her 27 games played this season. Graduating senior Eryn Stewart finished right behind the NEWHL Rookie of the Year as Stewart secured 23 points to put her career total of 59 points in 105 games played of her four years as a Laker. The Lakers will lose a total of four seniors as their only goaltender will also graduate, Rachel Farmer. Farmer played a total of 40 games for the Lakers over the course of two seasons as she finished with 1.98 goals against average with a .926 save percentage in her career. Moving forward, there is a question in net heading into next season, but the Lakers have plenty of time to fill the holes that may be left from the seniors. Oswego will kick off their 2020-2021 season in October.
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Men’s basketball dominates Red Dragons on senior day
OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Lakers men’s basketball team looked to continue their win streak to 17 this past weekend when they hosted the Cortland Red Dragons for senior night on Saturday evening. The first half ended up being controlled by the Lakers but Cortland held Oswego tough in the first half. After the first ten minutes the score was 13-10 Lakers until Jamal Achille became the offensive spark for Oswego and started a Laker 6-0 where lone senior Devin Green chipped in and added four points over that same stretch. After that run the Lakers exploded on offense going on a 41-18 run the last 10 minutes of the first half shooting similarly from the field and from three-point range (58.06% FG%, 58.33% 3PT%). Oswego got out ahead and had a 54-28 at the half.Cortland tried to start off the half stronger as reigning SUNY-AC player of the year Austin Grunder made a couple big shots to start for the red dragons. But it wouldn’t last long as Kaleb Cook took over during a four-minute stretch during the second half, scoring ten points, while Cortland could only get 4. By that point Cortland couldn’t get anything to go and Oswego would cruise to a 102-62 for their 7th game over 100 points in this season. The Lakers also keep their 17 game streak alive, not losing since the loss to Brockport at home in December. Jeremiah Sparks and Devin Green both had 14 points for the game in a great shooting game for Oswego, but the game was led on Oswego’s side by Kaleb Cook, whose ten point outburst in the second half helped him score 16 for the game. Cortland’s Austin Grunder ended up with another double double in this game and was the only Cortland player that was a positive in this game leading all scorers with 24. Oswego’s bench outscored the Red Dragons 47-18. and the Lakers dominated in the paint beating Cortland 48-10.
Coach Leone gets his 300th career win as a coach and the Lakers move to 21-2,(15-1 SUNYAC). The men’s team will travel to Brockport, NY to face Brockport on Friday, February 17 in a revenge game as Brockport was Oswego’s only previous SUNYAC loss.
IMAGE COURTESY OF ERIN BLANK, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Oswego State women’s hockey completes comeback against SUNY Potsdam
POTSDAM N.Y. — The Oswego women’s hockey team is in the midst of a fight for playoff seeding in the NEWHL. Coming into Tuesday night’s matchup in Potsdam they had three games remaining. The game against the Bears was a big one, the Lakers have already clinched a spot in the playoffs, but Potsdam still fighting for that final seed.
The Lakers took the first period. The lone goal of the period coming on the power play. Morgan Shines passed the puck up to the offensive blue line. Captain Philomena Teggart grabbed the puck and skated to the middle, Shines and Mack Hull set up a screen in front of goal and Teggart took a shot low on the goalies glove side and put it just inside the post. The Lakers killed a late power play for the Bears, and finished the first up on the scoreboard. They dominated the period, winning shots on goal 18-4.
The Lakers almost beat themselves at the start of the second period. A power play three minutes into the period for the Bears and a power play nine minutes in both got killed by the Lakers, with Laker goalie Joanna Hiebert making a few nice saves to keep the Lakers up. Unfortunately, quickly after the end of the second power play the Bears tied the game. Potsdam won possession at their offensive blue line setting up a two-on-two, and forward Kaylee Merrill threatened a pass but took it herself and scored a goal that was assisted by former Laker Megan Teachout. Just four minutes later Merrill picked off a Laker pass and took it one-on-one down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal to give the Bears a 2-1 lead and get her second goal of the night. Oswego again led in shot 15-11.
The third period started with the Lakers finishing off a penalty kill. The Lakers would go on the penalty kill again just before the three minute mark in the period. The Laker would kill it and clear the puck out of the defensive zone. The puck would skip a Bears players stick and Morgan Shines would gather and shoot it to the high blocker side for her team leading ninth goal and tie the game back up at two a piece with fifteen to go. The Lakers would go on a power play with 7:30 to go. Chyne Kennedy would make a key play to keep stop Potsdam for clearing the puck. She would pass the puck to Simone Bednarik who would pass it to Ariella Haas would put the puck in the back of the net for what was the game winning goal. The Lakers defensive would step up and stop a few Potsdam chances, including a late penalty kill, and the game would finish 3-2 in the Lakers favor. Joanna Hiebert would finish the game with twenty saves and improve her record to 10-3-1.
With the win, the Lakers have now won six straight and have a record of 14-0-7-1 (11-0-4-1 NEWHL). They are currently tied with Cortland in the standings, but sit a seed below due to the tiebreaker being head-to-head with the one seed, in this case Plattsburgh. The Lakers have two games left in the season and need to win out and need Cortland to lose one of their final two, both against SUNY Canton. The first of the Lakers final two games is Friday February, 18 in Morrisville against the Mustangs. WTOP10 will have continuing coverage of the Oswego women’s hockey team through the rest of the season and NEWHL playoffs.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY SHELBY PEPLOWSKI, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
