OSWEGO, NY — After many athletic conferences across the United States begin to cancel or postpone the Fall 2020 season due to COVID-19, the SUNYAC Conference announced on Monday, July 20th, the cancellation of the fall season for member institutions. This decision was made by the SUNYAC Presidents in conjunction with the SUNYAC Board of Directors. This comes after the Empire 8, a local New York Division III conference, announced the postponement of the Fall 2020 season on July 16th. The SUNYAC has decided to cancel all competition till January 2021, which includes winter sports. The report, found on the conference website, states that teams can continue small team workouts when school is back in session. There are still questions regarding the winter sports season that has been pushed off, but time will tell what changes will be made moving forward.
Of course, this will affect Oswego State Athletics for the time being, as most of the teams are a part of that conference. WTOP 10 will continue to have updates on the situation as students return to college around the end of August.
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Women’s Hockey falls to Morrisville
OSWEGO, NY — Women’s Hockey battled Morrisville Friday evening in another tightly contested conference match up. The Mustangs came away with a 2-0 victory over the Lakers to obtain their tenth win of the season. This would be the third time this season that Oswego has been shutout and second time in conference. Morrisville got on the scoreboard in the first period and then the third period as they got goals past senior Rachael Farmer. The goalie had 28 saves on the night in the lost. The Lakers failed to capitalize on the power play as Morrisville did net one while on the man advantage. Oswego looks to reset as the team welcomes in Potsdam who is coming off a 3-2 win over Buffalo State on the road. The Bears, along with Morrisville and Oswego, are all tied for 2nd place in the NEWHL with 15 points as Cortland sits just one point back with a total of 14. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon in the Marano Campus Center.
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Logan Castiglione and the Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse Team
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Following their unprecedented 2020 season, the Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse team has started their 2021 season off strong, securing victories against Morrisville State, Buffalo State, and SUNY Fredonia. The Lakers have won decisively in each of their victories thus far, lead by the outstanding play and leadership of junior midfielder, Logan Castiglione.
Castiglione is playing in her first lacrosse season since her senior year of high school and it doesn’t seem like she’s missed a beat. Through six games she’s totaled 11 goals and 11 assists, including a 5-goal performance vs. Morrisville State in her first game in over 3 years. Being that Logan is one of the more experienced athletes on the team, she believes it’s important for her to take on a leadership role this season. She states, “I really just try to keep myself composed. Since I am older, I try to be a leader more on the field.”
The Oswego Women’s Lacrosse team is 3-3 so far this season and although they’re currently on a 3-game losing streak, Coach Britt Howard believes this team has what it takes to make a postseason run. Howard has been coaching Women’s Lacrosse at Oswego since 2016 and she sees a lot of potential from this year’s team, especially from Logan Castiglione.
Coach said, “Logan just started joining out program this year and she really had a great start for her first game with us, so that was huge for her.”
Though the Lakers are in good position to qualify for SUNYACs, they must continue to build on their team chemistry in order to ensure a successful season, something Castiglione has emphasized to her team. She states, “Throughout the first couple weeks that I’ve been playing, we’ve been talking about teamwork, communication, and how much team chemistry is important on and off the field.”
Castiglione and the Oswego Women’s Lacrosse team have the opportunity to improve to 4-3 as they take on Buffalo State on April 18th.
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A Look Ahead: Oswego State men’s basketball in the SUNYAC and the national rankings
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego State men’s basketball team is in the midst of an all time great season. They currently sit a 16-1 and are on a thirteen game winning streak. They are first in the SUNYAC with a three game lead over SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta who both sit at 7-3 in the conference. Oneonta comes to Oswego on Friday and are on a five game win streak. New Paltz comes to town Saturday to take on the Lakers, they have back to back wins. Potsdam and Geneseo sit fourth and fifth in the standings, they are followed by Brockport, Cortland, Fredonia, Plattsburgh, and Buffalo State.
The Lakers have eight games left before the SUNYAC playoffs at the end of February. They play Oneonta and New Paltz twice in that span, with games against Potsdam, Plattsburgh, Brockport and Fredonia mixed in. Oswego currently boasts three double digit per game scorers in Senior Julien Crittendon (12.4), Junior Devin Green (11.6), and Sophomore Jeremiah Sparks (11.2). Senior Brendon Mulson has also been an effective scorer at 9.6 points per game, and the recent emergence of Senior Christian Simmons also sees him at 9.6 points per game. He also boasts doubles-doubles in his the last two games. Oswego is the best scoring team in the SUNYAC at 78.8 PPG. They are also the best defensive team in the SUNYAC at 59.8 points against per game, that is also sixth best in Division 3. The team has four players above five rebounds per game, Sparks (6.6), Simmons (6.3), Mulson (5.9), and Green (5.4). Oswego is currently the second best rebounding team in the SUNYAC at 42.9 per game.
The Lakers success was finally rewarded with a national ranking two weeks ago. The team had hovered just outside of the rankings for a few weeks before finally cracking the top 25 with number 25 last week, then jumping up to 22 this week (you can find the rankings here: https://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2021-22/week7). The resume includes the undefeated conference play, and a win against a then ranked Rensaellar Polytechnic Institute, their lone loss coming to a ranked Nazareth (25). With most likely four weeks left of rankings, the Lakers look to climb higher up. The teams around them include the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (21) and Wesleyan University (20) above, and Augsburg (23) and Emory University (24) below.
WTOP10 will have continuing coverage of the Oswego State men’s basketball team. Tune in for all home games on YouTube or Twitch.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY SHELBY PEPLOWSKI, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
SUNYAC STANDINGS PROVIDED BY SUNYAC WEBSITE
NATIONAL RANKINGS PROVIDED BY D3HOOPS.COM
