OSWEGO — Senior Allison Sullivan of the Oswego State volleyball team has added to her post-season accolades with an honorable mention all-region award, as announced by the American Volleyball Coaches Association this past weekend. This is the first all-region recognition for the middle blocker and fifth in the Lakers’ program history. Sullivan joins Erin Hanlon (2002, 2003) and Ariel Murawski (2015, 2016) as the other Lakers to be selected for this award.
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NYSPHSAA releases Return to Interscholastic Athletics resource for 2020-21 Season
OSWEGO, NY — On Friday, September 4th, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association released a lengthy document containing plans and guidelines for the 2020-21 sports season. The Return to Interscholastic Athletics resource was put together by staff of the association to give member schools aid on how sports should be handled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NYSPHSAA worded with the New York State Department of Health to classify sports into three different categories, Low Risk, Moderate Risk, and High Risk. Each fall sport received a category based on the ability to social distance and the ability to avoid touching shared experiment during play.
With the prior announcement that the fall sports season would begin on September 21st, school districts now know what sports will be permitted to compete compared to just practicing. The Low and Moderate Risk sports of Cross-Country, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Girls Swimming & Diving, Girls Tennis will be permitted to begin play inside their section or league until October 19th. After that date, schools will be allowed to compete beyond their section. The High Risk sports of Cheerleading, Football, and Volleyball will be permitted to practice. However, teams will not be able to compete against other schools till approved by the NYSDOH, or after December 31st. There will be no regional/state championships for the fall sports season.
A few weeks prior, the NYSPHSAA announced that the Winter sports season will be pushed back to November 30th, previously November 16th. This change gave the fall sports season two extra weeks to account for the push back of that season. March 15th is now the official start date for Spring Sports. Both winter and spring still have State Championships scheduled, which may be subject to change.
The association has also determined that school districts can determine if junior varsity or modified teams will be allowed to participate in the 2020-21 season. WTOP 10 will continue to provide coverage on the ever-evolving high school sports situation.
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Women’s Lax Achieves 12-Win Season For the First Time in Seven Years
OSWEGO, NY- The women’s lacrosse team had a successful weekend as they won both games including achieving their highest win total in a long time.In the Lakers first game, they defeated the Buffalo State Bengals on the road 16-10. It only took the Lakers 24 seconds to score as Shae McConnell got the Lakers on the board first. Two minutes later Julia Quirk scored for the Lakers to make it 2-0 with the Lakers scoring two goals within the first 3:23 seconds of the game. The Bengals would finally get on the board as Vanessa Willick would score two goals within 1:14 seconds to cut the Bengals lead to two with Oswego leading 4-2. Julia Quirk and Shae McConnell would add two more goals to make the score 6-2 at the end of the first quarter. Sarah Fineour would score two goals to open the second quarter for the Bengals to cut the Lakers lead to two at 6-4. Isabella Lembo would score to make the score 7-4 and the Lakers would add two more goals towards the end of the second quarter to make the halftime score 9-5. Shae McConnell would lead the Lakers at half with three goals.
The Bengals would rally off three straight goals within the first 2:09 seconds of the opening of the third quarter to rally back down 9-8 to put the Lakers on the edge of their seats. The Lakers would go on a 5-0 run to end the third quarter as Julia Quirk would score two goals in the quarter. The Lakers would lead 14-8 at the end of the third quarter. Quirk would have four goals entering the fourth quarter. Seven minutes went by without both teams scoring until Julia Quirk scored with 8:14 left to give the Lakers a 15-8 lead. Buffalo State would answer back to make it a nine-point game as Sarah Fineour would score her third goal of the game to cut the Lakers lead to six. Julia Quirk would seal the deal for the Lakers with 6:58 remaining to make the score 16-8. Quirk would lead the Lakers on the day with a career-high six goals. Buffalo State would score late but the Lakers would win 16-10. The Lakers improve to 11-3 which ties their best record since the 2019 lacrosse season.
The Lakers were able to carry their momentum from their last game into their game against the Oneonta Red Dragons. The Lakers managed to win 16-13. Isabella Lembo and Sela Wiley got things going for the Lakers early with two goals within the first 1:56 seconds of the game. Three minutes later Isabella Lembo would score back-to-back goals for the Lakers to put them up 4-0 with 9:27 remaining in the first quarter. The Red Dragons would respond immediately after as Mason Benevuto scored the first goal of the game for the Red Dragons to make it a 4-1 game. Julia Quirk and Sela Wiley would score two goals at the end of the first quarter to give the Lakers a 6-1 lead. Shae McConnell increased the Lakers lead to six with 11:38 remaining. The Red Dragons would go on a 3-0 run in 4:02 seconds with the Red Dragons scoring with 2:20 seconds left in the first half to cut the Lakers lead to four at 9-5. Madison Davis would score with 20 seconds left in the half to give the Lakers a 10-5 lead at halftime. Isabella Lembo would lead the Lakers with three goals for the first half.
Sela Wiley got things started for the Lakers scoring just 55 seconds into the second half. Isabella Lembo would then score three consecutive goals in a row as she would still lead the Lakers on the day with six goals as the Lakers would lead 14-5 with 7:42 left in the third quarter. The Red Dragons would then score two goals as Lindsay Townes and Marissa Evans would cut the Lakers lead to seven. Katie Fierro would increase the Lakers lead to eight with 2:08 remaining in the third. Cassidy Moore and Olivia McCabe would then add two goals at the end of the third quarter to put the Red Dragons down 15-9. The Red Dragons would then score 56 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 15-11. Isabella Lembo would score the final goal of the game for the Lakers as she would add her seventh goal of the game. The Red Dragons would then go on a 3-0 run towards the end of the fourth quarter as Cassidy Moore would score twice and Lauren Mancini scoring once during that run. The Lakers would take care of the Red Dragons 16-13 as Oneonta would fall to 5-9 on the season.
The Lakers win game number 12 of the season which is their highest win total since 2016 where they finished 12-4. Their next win would be their most wins in a season in their program’s history. The Lakers now face their toughest challenge of the season traveling to Cortland on Wednesday, April 26th to take on the Red Dragons who sit a first in the SUNYAC after beating Geneseo on Saturday 14-8. The Lakers will look to pull off a major upset in the SUNYAC along with getting their first ever win against Cortland all-time in their programs history as they stand 0-32 against the Red Dragons all-time. Last season, the Lakers lost 17-4 to Cortland and have been outscored by the Red Dragons all-time by a score of 172-527. The Lakers at the moment stand as the third seed in the SUNYAC standings as they will likely face off against the Red Dragons once again in the SUNYAC Playoffs Round One at home but this is still TBD at the moment.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ERIN BLANK, WTOP-10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Oswego Hockey stays undefeated with win over Brockport
OSWEGO — Lakers hockey battled the Brockport Golden Eagles Friday night which resulted in a 4-1 victory for Oswego. Brockport would open the scoring a little over halfway into the first period after getting one past goalie David Richer. He would save the rest of Brockport’s shots to finish with 21 total. Jody Sullivan would tally one four minutes later as Joseph Molinaro and Chris MacMillan received the assists. The Lakers would pull away from the Golden Eagles in the second period as captain Josh Zizek would put one in within the first two minutes. Travis Broughman and Colton Fletcher would both add by the end of the second to secure the win. Joseph Molinaro was a standout as he finished with 3 assists on the night. The Lakers will look forward to tomorrow night’s trip to No. 2 Geneseo to play their fifth SUNYAC game of the campaign. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. and coverage will be provided by WNYO in the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena.
