OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse team is set to play their second game of the 2021 season on Saturday vs. Fredonia. After multiple games were rescheduled, this will be the Laker’s first action since their dominant season-opening victory over Morrisville State on March 20th. This will also be the Laker’s first SUNYAC matchup this season. As for Fredonia, they are coming off a 21-4 SUNYAC loss to SUNY Brockport and have a season record of 0-2.
Fredonia has given up 37 total goals in their first two games of the season which bodes well for the Lakers leading scorer, Sela Wiley, as she looks to top her outstanding performance in Oswego’s season opener vs Morrisville. The sophomore midfielder totaled 7 goals on only 10 shots, while also racking up 5 ground balls and 1 assist. Junior attack, Logan Castiglione, will also look to top her last performance as she totaled 5 goals, 2 assists, and 0 turnovers. Although Fredonia hasn’t played well as of late, the Lakers still have to play aggressively, especially against senior attack, Allison Coon. Coon has scored 20+ goals every year prior to last year’s shortened season and has 2 goals so far in 2021. The Oswego Women’s Lacrosse team is currently on a four-game win streak vs Fredonia, with their last matchup being a 23-3 Laker victory in 2019. Oswego will look to extend their win streak to five on Saturday at 1:00 PM. WTOP 10 will be live at Laker Turf Stadium for the matchup.
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Oswego men’s basketball split the week with SUNYAC opponents
OSWEGO, NY. – The Oswego State Men’s Basketball team returned home for their first SUNYAC matchup of the season on Tuesday evening .The Lakers opened up their conference play against the Fredonia Blue Devils. The Lakers got off to a hot start offensively, hitting 3 of their first 5 three point shots. After the first ten minutes of play, the Lakers were 7/10 from the three point line and played great defensively holding Fredonia to only 17% from the field. Oswego would take a lead by 27 before the Blue Devils started to make their own run to cut their lead back down to 21. At half,Oswego would have a 46-25 lead in help from a combination of great defense and even better offense. The Lakers shot 50% from behind the arc and overall 47.4% from the fieldOswego was able to win on the glass in the half, out rebounding the Blue Devils with a 22-16 margin. The Lakers played great team basketball as they spread the ball around, resulting in ten different players recording at least one field goal in the half.
Jeremiah Sparks started the second half with a flash when he started with a steal and a dunk in transition. The very next play Sparks stole the ball again and got another two points on the fastbreak just seconds later. The Blue Devils played better offensively in second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit handed to them by the Lakers. A dunk in transition by Cartier Bowman with 7 minutes left was the exclamation point stopping the Fredonia run and Oswego was able to hit several three-point attempts late in the second half to close out the 79-60 victory.
Cartier Bowman had a great game recording a double-double with 22 points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks. The Lakers ended the game 4-1 and 1-0 in the SUNYAC.
The Lakers returned back to the Max Ziel on Friday in a tough SUNYAC matchup against the Brockport Golden Eagles. The game started with a low scoring affair as no team could get the momentum going. Oswego trailed Brockport 13-7 just over 10 minutes into the contest, but went on a 10-0 run to take a 17-13 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half. The Golden Eagles went on a little run of their own the last 5 minutes and the Lakers now trailed 28-25 at half.
The second half started with both teams swapping the lead back and forth. Oswego started knocking down half of their shots going 50% from the field. Brockport then came back with a a sixpoint lead with only six minutes left and coming out of a Laker timeout Jamal Achille hit a layup helping the struggling offensive lakers cut the deficit to four. That layup with be the last score for either team until about 90 seconds remaining in the game when Brockport kept growing their lead. On the Oswego side Devin Green ended the game with 11 points. The Lakers struggled all game shooting 25.7% from the field, and 18.5% from three point range. The Lakers did have more offensive rebounds recording 16 to Brockport’s 10.
The Lakers move to 4-2(1-1) overall and have their first lost in the SUNYAC with a record of 1-1.The men now travel to Buffalo to face the Buffalo State Bengals on December 3, and look to get back in the win column against a team that has lost two games in a row.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS
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Breakdown: The Return of Oswego State Winter Sports
Oswego State fans have something to cheer about come February as the State University of New York Athletic Conference has announced the schedules for men’s ice hockey, along with men’s and women’s basketball. The decision was announced on Tuesday, October 6th, after the SUNYAC athletic directors approved the schedules during the conference meeting on October 5th. The conference has split the three sports into two divisions based on geographic location across the state of New York. This divisional alignment is to protect the health and safety of student athletes, and allows for the decrease of travel costs. Also, student-athletes would keep NCAA eligibility by playing less than fifty percent of the allowable contests during a season. The top two teams in each division will be rewarded a berth to the SUNYAC playoffs, locations for these tournaments have not been released. Non-conference contests would be played prior to February, which will be determined at a later time.
Men’s Ice Hockey
Oswego State Hockey fans will see the return of the Lakers on February 5th in the Marano Campus Center. The Western Division will consist of Brockport, Buffalo State, Cortland, Fredonia, and Geneseo. That division will play eight games based off a double round-robin schedule. Contests will be scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays as of right now. Due to the conference only having nine members, the Eastern division will play a triple round-robin schedule. Since there is a one game difference between divisions, the Eastern Division will drop one game to balance the conference. Oswego will face off against Morrisville, Plattsburgh, and Potsdam in the Eastern Division. Two teams in each division will be rewarded a berth to the SUNYAC semifinals which will be played on Thursday, March 4th. The conference championship will be scheduled for Sunday, March 7th. The Lakers will host Morrisville State and Potsdam twice over the course of the month in the wheelhouse, while Plattsburgh and Oswego will only see each other twice in the regular season. Oswego State will only have three away games in conference play, each of these being against different divisional opponents.
Men’s Ice Hockey SUNYAC Schedule
Men’s and Women’s Basketball
Both Oswego State basketball teams will play conference games based off the division format. Men’s and women’s basketball will play regular-season doubleheaders starting on Monday, February 1st. These games will consist on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays over the course of the month. Oswego will be competing in the Western Division against Brockport, Buffalo State, Fredonia, and Geneseo. The Eastern Division will consist of Cortland, New Paltz, Oneonta, Plattsburgh, and Potsdam. The conference semifinals are slated for Thursday, February 25th, and the championship taking place on Sunday, February 28th. To open up conference play, both teams will head on the road to SUNY Brockport to play the Golden Eagles. The Lakers will host the Fredonia Blue Devils on February 6th in the Max Ziel Gymnasium.
Men’s and Women’s Basketball SUNYAC Schedule
Schedules Provided by Oswego State Athletics
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Oswego’s Men’s Lacrosse Team Set to Begin 2021 Season
OSWEGO, NY — The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse Team is set to take on SUNY Oneonta on Saturday, March 20th to kick off their 2021 season. This will be the Oswego Men’s Lacrosse team’s first action in over a year due to the pandemic. However, unlike prior seasons, conference play is set to begin earlier than ever before, starting March 26th versus Geneseo. Senior goaltender Kevin O’Donnell understands just how important these early games are to set the tone for the rest of the season.
“With SUNYACs coming up so soon and those being the most important games for our team, the level of expectancy exceeds any other season in my opinion,” O’Donnell said. “Especially with the teams were playing, Morrisville, Oneonta, and then the rest of the SUNY division, it’s important that were on our A-game.”
O’Donnell is now a team captain and is looking to surpass 400 career saves in the coming games.
Being that this is the Lakers first game since March of 2020, it’s important that they eliminate any mistakes or confusion they might have. Head Coach Drew Bezek, who is going into his 7th season on the coaching staff, believes his team needs to master their game plan early on in order to be successful.
“With early season games, it’s always about limiting mistakes and doing what we need to do. A lot of times with the beginning part of the season, you’re not so worried about your competition and what they run. It’s us being super-efficient and consistent at what we’re trying to do.”
Although many things are different this season for the players, coaches, and staff, film sessions and scouting remain an important aspect of Oswego’s success. However, since teams only played a few games in 2020, the Lakers will have to anticipate Oneonta’s game plan based off what they saw from early last year.
Coach Bezek said, “We’ll treat this year similar to the past where for the first game of the year, your kind of going off tendencies from the previous year. We’re not going to know some of their new players, but from the film, we could try to piece together how they run their system.”
The Lakers have won their last four games vs. Oneonta dating back to 2016 and look to extend their win streak to five on Saturday.
Package Aired Thursday 3/18/21 on Nightly News
