By Emma Deo
The Plattsburgh State Cardinals’ women’s lacrosse is a young program, but this has not stopped them from shattering records this season.
Junior defender Lillian Gilroy earned herself two broken records so far this season, setting the single-season draw control record with 62 and the career draw control program record with 113 and counting.
Junior attacker Cynthia Barnosky also set a program record for career points with 112 in the team’s contest against Russell Sage on Tuesday.
The squad set a program record for goals scored in a game, putting up 25 goals on VTSU Castleton in their home opener Feb. 26.
“They definitely deserve it. All the hard work that they’ve done. Hopefully, they keep breaking them as the year goes on,” head coach Kelly Wall said.
To kick off the week, the Cards took down the Russell Sage Gators courtesy of senior midfielder Caitlin Nash’s career-high four goals. Nash also recorded four caused turnovers.
Barnosky also had a day for herself, recording four goals and two assists in her most-recent record breaking game.
Both sides put up four goals in the first quarter, heading into the intermission knotted up.
Gilroy scored a goal to open the second quarter, putting the Cards up 5-4. This was the last time they held the lead until the fourth quarter.
Plattsburgh fought hard in the second quarter, but it was unable to hold onto the lead and entered the third quarter down 9-7.
The third quarter was slow for both squads, but Plattsburgh put their foot on the gas in the fourth, out-scoring the Gators 6-3.
With just over five minutes remaining, the Gators had a 13-12 lead, but Nash took matters into her own hands and tied the game. She was unassisted on the goal. A few minutes later, she was able to record the game-winner off an Iohseriio Tabor assist, and the Cards took home the win.
“Our Russell Sage game was a great on-the-road win for us. A big thing that helped us through until the end was just focusing on the game, play by play, not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” Gilroy wrote. “In a tight game like that, it comes down to staying focused and making smart, calculated decisions, and I think everyone contributed to that, leading us to a win.”
Plattsburgh’s road to the end of the week was not done here. The Cards traveled to Cortland on Saturday to take on the Red Dragons in a SUNYAC matchup. The team ultimately fell to Cortland 22-1, with senior attacker Maddy Garcia recording the only Plattsburgh State goal.
“Although the game didn’t end in our favor, we had a lot of positive moments from that game that we are taking with us into the rest of our season. Competing against them is a tough matchup, but we’re going to keep learning from that game, improving offensively and defensively, as we head into our remaining SUNYAC matchups,” Gilroy wrote.
Currently, the Cards have two brand new goalies suiting up to go in net, with junior midfielder turned goalkeeper Anna Meyers and standout women’s hockey graduate student forward Mae Olshansky putting on the gear for the first time.
“Tough goalie situation, lost a couple here and there, but them stepping up has just been huge,” Wall said. “Anna, being a field player, is really taking a big sacrifice for the team and has really stepped up in a lot of ways and then to get Mae too has been awesome.”
The Cards are set to face the Morrisville Mustangs for the first time in program history Saturday, April 5 at the fieldhouse turf in a SUNYAC showdown.
“To get back in that win column, I know we’re all focusing on what we can do, what our skills are, how we can make sure that we are just keeping focus on what we can control and building all the good that we’ve already done this year,” Nash said.
