Women's Lacrosse | 4/27/2024 7:21:00 PM
ONEONTA, NY – The Nazareth women's lacrosse team won an overtime thriller at Hartwick on Saturday as Maggie Vay netted a tally 3:10 into the extra period to lift the Golden Flyers to an 11-10 win.
Heading into the contest, both teams had qualified for the upcoming four-team Empire 8 Championships, with the winner gaining the third seed and the loser the fourth. The big win for Nazareth (7-9 overall, 4-2 Empire 8) sets up a date with No. 2 Utica (13-3 overall, 5-1 E8) in the semifinals. Hartwick (7-7 overall, 3-3 Empire 8) will travel to top-seeded St. John Fisher (9-7 overall, 6-0 Empire 8) for the other semifinal matchup. Both contests will take place on Wednesday.
Nazareth fell to Utica 13-10 back on April 6. The Golden Flyers and the Pioneers are familiar opponents in the semifinals, meeting each of the last three seasons. Nazareth has won by one goal in each of the last three seasons (11-10 in 2023, 10-9 in 2022, and 9-8 in 2021).
The Golden Flyers trailed 6-4 before scoring four-straight. A goal each from Emily Paddock (extra-attacker) and Maggie Vay tied the game a six apiece heading into the half.
Makenna Misiurewicz scored the first goal of the third quarter from Vay. Kate Metzler scored her first of the day just :16 seconds later to make it 8-6. Misiurewicz led the Golden Flyers with three goals and one assist.
The Hawks were able to tie the game at eight before Misiurewicz and Metzler answered, both on the extra-attacker for a 10-8 lead with under nine to play.
Hartwick, however evened the score with 4:19 remaining on the extra-attacker opportunity.
Despite winning the overtime draw, Nazareth turned the ball over and goaltender Allie Klestinec was called upon to make two big saves to keep the contest going.
Those saves set up Vay scoring her second of the day from Kate Metzler 3:10 into overtime for the win.
Klestinec made 19 saves, the second highest output for her during the season.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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