ONEONTA, N.Y. — On Tuesday, the Oswego State women’s lacrosse team traveled to Oneonta to take on the Red Dragons in the first round of the SUNYAC tournament. In the back-and-forth contest which saw six Lakers total at least two points, Oswego would end up falling to the home team 14-12.

To open up the first five minutes of play, Oneonta came out firring quickly, putting up three consecutive goals. Though, it was at the 7:15 mark of the quarter when Julia Quirk scored her first of many goals on the day on a player-up opportunity. Four minutes later Isabella Lembo would continue the Lakers scoring run, finding the back of the net off a picture-perfect pass from Sela Wiley. In the final two minutes of the opening frame, both teams put in another goal. For Oswego, it was Logan Castiglione who — like many games this season — showed her playmaking prowess, setting up Shae McConnell to bring the score to 4-3. Within a minute of the second quarter, Oneonta answered back to the late goal scored by the Lakers and brought their lead to 5-3. Then once more at the 12:56 mark, the Red Dragons got another one passed Sarah Kamide to take a three-goal lead. From here on, the momentum started to shift towards the Lakers. Madison Davis found a Quirk cutting through the lane for a goal to make the score 7-5 with &:34 remaining in the half. Then much like the first quarter, Oswego got another late goal before the closing buzzer. With 40 seconds remaining, Wiley added her second assist of the game on a pass to McConnell, cutting the deficit to just one goal at the break.

It was key for Oswego to carry that momentum into the third quarter and that’s exactly what they did. Just 16 seconds into the second half, Wiley added another assist, finding an open Castiglione to tie the game at seven. However, the Red Dragons were not going to give up that easy. Oneonta kicked it up a notch, scoring the game’s next three goals spanning from 14:13-11:47. This put the Red Dragons up 10-7. At the 11:02 mark, Castiglione got her third point of the afternoon as she set up Davis for her first goal. Following this, Oneonta started to pull away little by little. At the 9:03 mark, the home team took a 12-8 lead after scoring two straight goals. Oswego was able to chip away at this lead before the end of the quarter as Quirk put in another goal with 1:45 remaining. This brought the contest back to a three-goal difference heading into the final quarter. Less than two minutes into the fourth, Oneonta scored once more to take a 13-9 lead. Shortly after, Quirk scored again following a caused turnover by Lembo. Although, the Red Dragons fired back at 9:15 to regain their four-goal lead. Oswego scored the final two goals of the game, but those final two goals of the game would end up being the final two goals of the season for the Lakers. Oswego wasn’t able to find the back of the net over the final three minutes and Oneonta would go on to win 14-12.

Statistically, the game was relatively even. Oswego barely trailed the Red Dragons in total shots (29-28), but did have two more turnovers in the game (19-17). Where things weren’t even, though, came in the ground ball department where Oneonta was extremely efficient (23-14). The Lakers had a total of six players rack up at least two points including Julia Quirk (6g), Sela Wiley (5a), Madison Davis (2g, 2a), Logan Castiglione (1g, 2a), Shae McConnell (2g), and Isabella Lembo (1g, 1a). Sarah Kamide also brought in 10 saves throughout the contest.

Although it isn’t the outcome the team or Coach Howard wanted, this season was a success for the Lakers. This season marked the first time Oswego made the playoffs since 2019, over three years ago. This was also the first time Oswego had a winning record in the SUNYAC conference (5-4) since that very season. In the 2021 season, one of the Lakers biggest problems was that they were too reliant on Sela Wiley to generate offense and score goals. However, Oswego completely flipped the switch and were much more efficient in 2022. The Lakers saw five players total more than 20 goals this season as opposed to last year where they only had one. This — in part — was due to the meteoric rise of Julia Quirk, who put up 35 goals this season which was 30 more than she had in 2021. Oswego was also much better at setting teammates up for success this year. Logan Castiglione once again led the team in assists, this time with 34 which was more than double the amount she had last season (15). Finally, Oswego saw great production from freshman goalkeeper Sarah Kamide. In her first year with the team, Kamide totaled 152 saves and more impressively, play every second of every game this year, solidifying herself as the Ironwoman the Lakers will need moving forward.

Through a hard fought season, Oswego was able to put together a much improved 2022 campaign. Although the outcome could have been more favorable, the team put on some mightily impressive performances. With only one senior graduating this year, the Oswego State women’s lacrosse team looks to be intact for the foreseeable future. And with the talent this team possesses currently, the future is brighter than ever for the Lakers.

Image Provided By Oswego State Athletics