OSWEGO — This weekend, the Oswego State Volleyball team will participate in the Oswego State Quad as they take on St. John Fisher on Friday as well as Union and Oneonta on Saturday. The Lakers are (13-8) this season but just (2-4) in conference play putting them 5th in the SUNYAC. If they want to make the SUNYAC tournament, they will have to win these next few games.
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Oswego State women’s hockey falls in overtime to Cortland
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego State women’s hockey team had a tough matchup Tuesday night, a NEWHL semi-final matchup versus the Cortland Red Dragons in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena. The teams had met three times in the regular season with Oswego taking two of the three, but at the end of all three matchups the teams were separated by only one goal. Tuesday nights contest ended no different. The first period was all Cortland. The Red Dragons looked like the more dominant team throughout the entire period and they outshot the Lakers 10-3. Cortland had the only power play of the period, they got off four shots, but Oswego killed it. The first period ended with both teams getting penalties, and four-on-four hockey ensued that carried over to the start off the second period, but again no goals were scored. Oswego fought back in the second period, outshooting Cortland 13-2. Oswego got the second power play of the game, but the Cortland penalty-kill unit came out on top. The third frame was all Lakers again, beating Cortland in shots on goal 13-4, and getting a lot of their best looks at goal in the entire game. Cortland got their second power play of the game in the final period of regulation, but Oswego out shot them 1-0 in those two minutes. The third period ended scoreless, and the teams headed to OT. Cortland got their third and final power play of the game in OT, but Oswego kept a perfect record on the penalty kill in the game. Cortland would keep the puck in their own offensive zone after the power play though. A shot from the point by Cortland’s Dany Donegan bounced through traffic and found the netting behind Oswego goalie Joanna Hiebert for the game winner, 1-0. Hiebert had 21 saves in the game and finished her season with a 12-4-1 record this season. Cortland goalie Molly Goergen had thirty saves on the night. Oswego’s Ashlynn McGrath led the team with six shots. Morgan Shines was 9-13 in the face-off circle.
Cortland advances to take on Plattsburgh in the NEWHL final game. Oswego finishes their season 16-8-1 overall, 13-4-1 in conference. It was the final game in the green-and-gold for seniors Chyne Kennedy, Philomena Teggart, and Aislinn McAleer. Kennedy was Oswego’s third highest point getter with 18 this season, Teggart wore the captains badge this season and ended third on the team in assists with 11. McAleer was one of only seven players to play all 25 games this season.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHELBY PEPLOWSKI, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Women’s Basketball struggles continue as they lose third straight
OSWEGO, NY- It was a rough week for the Lakers as they lost both games this weekend falling to New Paltz 71-43 on Friday and then to Oneonta on Saturday 62-48.
In the first game against New Paltz it was all out domination for the Hawks against the Lakers. The Lakers started off on the wrong foot as they trailed 11-0 with 7:00 left in the first quarter. The Lakers finally got on the board with 6:43 left in the first quarter as Logan Castiglione would knock down a three to help the Lakers only trail 11-3. The Hawks continued to dominate the Lakers late into the first as they led 24-9 after quarter one. Logan Castiglione would lead the Lakers with five points after quarter number one. The Lakers faired decent from both the field and for three-pointers as they went 40% from the field and 50% for three-pointers. The second quarter would be a repeat of the first quarter for the Lakers. The Hawks would score in the beginning minutes of the second quarter as Jenny Walton made a layup in the paint to go up 26-9. The Hawks would lead by a huge margin of 42-13 heading into halftime.
The second half was a continuation of the first half for the Lakers. The Hawks would extend their lead to 45-13 in the early minutes of the third. The Lakers could never close the gap at all throughout the rest of the game. Oswego completely struggled in the third quarter from the field only managing to shoot 14.29% but went 75% from the free-throw line. The Hawks led by a 39-point margin at the end of the third quarter 60-21. The fourth quarter saw the Hawks continue to extend their lead as Julia Sabatino scored her sixth point of the game to extend the Hawks lead to 62-21. The Hawks would dominate winning 71-43. Brianna Fitzgerald would lead the Hawks with 20 points and Logan Castiglione would lead the Lakers with nine points. This marks the eighth time that the Lakers have lost by 15 points or more.
After a blowout loss to the Hawks, the Lakers were hoping to rebound against the Oneonta Red Dragons but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Olivia Dobrovsky got the Red Dragons on the board first to make it 2-0. Sydney Hoefs would score with 7:09 left in the first quarter to cut the Red Dragons lead to two. The score was tied at 13 at the end of the first quarter. Oswego faired well from the field at 50%. The second quarter started with Juliana Logana scoring to give the Lakers the early lead in the second quarter but it only took the Red Dragons just 25 seconds to tie the game at 15. The Lakers would extend their led to 31-23 with just 45 seconds left but the Red Dragons would knock down a three as the Lakers led 31-26 at half.
Giavanna Principio-White would extend the Lakers lead to seven at the beginning of the third. Oneonta found its way back in the game in the third as Meg Nardelli hit a three-pointer to draw within one, Nardelli would then score again less than a minute later to give the Red Dragons a 37-36 lead with 3:50 left. The Lakers found themselves trailing 46-41 at the end of the third quarter. The Lakers could get nothing going in the fourth quarter especially in the opening minutes of the fourth. The Red Dragons would continue to extend their lead in the fourth. Jenna Harclerode knocked down a three-pointer to put Oneonta up 53-43 over the Lakers as the Lakers found themselves in a tough position that they couldn’t get out of for the rest of the game. The Red Dragons took down the Lakers 62-48. Logan Castiglione would lead the Lakers in points for both games with 20.
The Lakers look to get back in the win column as they host the Cortland Red Dragons on Friday, February 10th at the Max Ziel Gymnasium. Oswego faces a Red Dragons team that is at the top of the SUNYAC this season with Cortland coming off a flat loss to New Platz 64-46. Oswego was absolutely dominated in the game they faced against Cortland back on January 13th 75-30. The Lakers have lost six straight to Cortland dating back to the 2018-2019 season. Their last win against Cortland came on January 12, 2019 winning 70-57.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO STATE ATHLETICS
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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.
