Women's Lacrosse | 4/27/2021 9:00:07 PM
No. 3 seed Utica College and No. 4 seed Hartwick College advanced in the opening round of the 2021 Empire 8 Women's Lacrosse Championship on Tuesday, April 27. Utica defeated No. 6 seed Keuka College, 20-4, while Hartwick upeneded No. 5 Russell Sage College, 19-4. Both Utica and Hartwick earned its first Empire 8 postseason win on Tuesday.
Utica will head to No. 2 seed Nazareth College to take on the Golden Flyers in one semifinal Friday afternoon, while Hartwick travels to take on No. 1 seed St. John Fisher College. Both semifinal contests will take place at 4 p.m.
NO. 3 UTICA 20, NO. 6 KEUKA 4
Host Utica scored 11 goals in a 12 minute span in the first half and rolled to a 20-4 win over Keuka Tuesday evening from Gaetano Stadium for its first Empire 8 Tournament win. The Pioneers move to 9-5, while Keuka finishes its season with a 1-5 mark.
Lexi Scaccia led all players with seven points on five goals and two assists, while Lauren Wolff had two goals and four assists and Stephanie Husnay added two goals and three asissts. Addison Green tallied three goals, while Samantha DeCondo scored twice and added two assists. Alyssa Pisano scored twice and had a game-high eight draw controls.
Claire Frier made four saves in net for the Pioneers, who out-shot Keuka, 47-10.
Sadie Bonetti a hand in all four Keuka goals, scoring three times and assisting on another. Sydney Bloom also scored and had four draw controls.
NO. 4 HARTWICK 19, NO. 5 RUSSELL SAGE 4
Just under a week after the Hartwick ended their regular season with a 15-goal win at Russell Sage, they did the same on their home turf to the tune of a 19-4 victory on Tuesday. Hartwick earned its first Empire 8 postseason win in program history and improved to 3-3 in 2021, while Russell Sage finished its season, 3-6.
The Hawks scored the final 11 goals of the first half over the last 20 minutes of play to build an insurmountable 13-1 lead and advance to the Empire 8 Semifinals for the first time since 2004.
GinaMarie Wilson was one point away from matching her career-high of nine points, which she also had in her last game (which was also against these same Gators). She had four goals and four assists on seven shots, three ground balls, and one draw control. Emily Schaub put up five goals, as well as four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Claudia Pollaro added two goals and two assists as well as a game-high and career-best 10 draw controls, three ground balls, and one caused turnover. Amy Tracy had four points, via one goal and three assists. Jennifer Paszko was impressive in net, making eight saves to earn the win.
All four of Russell Sage's tallies were unassisted, so the quartet of Musinski, Shafer, Hines, and Brittany Gage were the team's only point-scorers. Musinski led with three draw controls, followed by Gage and Alexandra Queeney with two apiece. Laliah Espinal led her side with four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Marina Azab started the game in net, playing 14:55 and giving up nine goals on 11 shots. Carly Plaisance subbed in for the remaining 45:05, making 10 saves and giving up 10 goals.
The Hawks led in every statistical category. They had a 38-13 advantage in shots, inclusive of a 31-12 lead in shots on goal. The Hawks had 18 turnovers to their visitors' 21, were 15-of-17 on clears compared to 7-of-18, had 28 ground balls scooped to Russell Sage's 17, and controlled 16 of the 24 draws.
Nazareth defeated semfinal opponent Utica twice earlier in the season by scores of 13-9 and 15-9, while St. John Fisher downed Hartwick, 18-4 earlier in the regular season on April 17.
2021 Empire 8 Women’s Lacrosse Championship Schedule
Tuesday, April 27 – First Round
#3 Utica College defeats #6 Keuka College, 20-4 – STATS
#4 Hartwick College defeats #5 Russell Sage College, 19-4 – STATS
Friday, April 30 - Semifinals
#4 Hartwick at #1 St. John Fisher College – 4 p.m. – VIDEO – LIVE STATS
#3 Utica at #2 Nazareth College – 4 p.m. – VIDEO – LIVE STATS
Sunday, May 2 - Championship
Winner of Semifinal #1 vs. Winner of Semifinal #2 – TBA at Highest Remaining Seed