By Emma Deo
The Plattsburgh State women’s lacrosse team tallied its first SUNYAC win of the season, downing the Morrisville Mustangs 16-5 on Saturday.
Multiple Cardinals got in on the scoring, with nine players recording points in the matchup. Junior attacker Cynthia Barnosky led the way with seven points off of a career-high six goals and one assist. First-year attacker Ashley O’Hara had a career-high six-point performance with another career-high three goals and three assists.
Junior attacker Erica Dickinson had a multi-goal performance with two goals and an assist. Maggie Maurer, Leah Klotz, Abby Guasconi, Nicole Resnick and Chase Calandra were all able to find the back of the net, while Maurer, Klotz, Guasconi and Resnick each tallied an assist as well.
To round out the scoring, senior midfielder Caitlin Nash finished the day with one assist.
“We were able to really just connect our passes. We were doing really well. We were able to move and get open for each other and work really well together overall,” Nash said.
On the defensive end, junior Lilly Gilroy led the charge with 12 draw controls, four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Graduate student Mae Olshansky made three saves in goal for the Cardinals in 60 minutes of action.
Plattsburgh won the shot battle 35-17, putting 26 shots on goal while limiting the Mustangs to eight.
The Cardinals also took control of the circle, winning 15 draw controls to Morrisville’s 10, but the Mustangs had a slight advantage on ground balls, 25-24.
Plattsburgh State rises to 3-7, 1-3 with the win and Morrisville falls to 0-6, 0-4 with the loss.
“Our main focus this season has been working on starting how we finish. We’re a little hesitant in the beginning, but we’re working on coming out strong from the first draw of the game,” Barnosky said.
The Cards came out firing as Barnsoky put up her first goal just 30 seconds into the game off a Nash assist. A minute later, the Mustangs tied the game.
O’Hara then recorded two of her three goals in the first quarter, putting Plattsburgh up 3-1.
“The game started with us, how we wanted it to be, but then we finally put our heads together and said let’s get this done,” Barnosky said. Then we started playing together and taking it play by play, starting with the draw and ending with the ball in the back of the net.”
The second quarter was even as both teams notched two goals, with Plattsburgh’s coming from Barnosky and Dickinson, giving them the 5-3 lead heading into halftime.
The Card’s offense came alive in the third quarter as they exploded for seven goals and allowed zero, sending them into the fourth with a dominant 13-3 advantage over Morrisville. Plattsburgh held onto the lead for the rest of the game, heading home with a 16-5 SUNYAC victory.
“I think that win just showed we still have it in us, and we’re hoping to carry that win and that feeling into the game against Oneonta,” Barnosky said.
This game honored Morgan’s Message, which is an organization that pushes to eliminate the stigma surrounding student-athlete’s struggles with mental health.
The sidewalk outside the fieldhouse was decorated by the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams with inspirational chalk art. The girls also sported special warm-up t-shirts with the Morgan’s Message logo on them, showing others experiencing mental health struggles that they are not alone.
The Cards had another home SUNYAC contest, this time against the Oneonta Red Dragons, on Tuesday, where they ultimately lost 12-18.
Barnosky led the way for the Cardinals yet again with four goals, with Guasconi tallying the hat trick and O’Hara finding the back of the net twice.
Iohserrio Tabor, Rachel Lamar and Resnick all notched one goal in the loss.
The first quarter was back and forth, with both squads trading the lead, but the Red Dragons took control at the end of the quarter, going up 6-4 and never relinquishing the lead. The Cards did not go down without a fight, putting up three fourth-quarter goals, but this was not enough as Plattsburgh fell to 3-8, 1-4.
“I think we’re still working on building off of what we’ve been learning and what we’ve been working on all year. Just trying to get to a level that we know we can reach, and keep going up from where we are,” Nash said.
