By Garrett Collins
This past week for the women’s lacrosse team has been anything but consistent. They opened up the week April 20 against the current 9th place team in the SUNYAC, and were already eliminated from playoff contention.
The Cardinals have not yet been eliminated from playoff contention and at this point are fighting for their playoff life.
The Bears, however, were not going to roll over and allow Plattsburgh to take an easy win. The Cardinals and the Bears went back and forth during the game, with the score margin never climbing past 4 goals.
The Cardinals proved in this game that sometimes offense is better than defense. The scoring breakdown of the game was just as close as the score itself. Plattsburgh took 10 more shots than Potsdam, and only 7 more than Potsdam were on goal. One stat that is apparent when looking at these two teams is the amount of times the two teams were able to successfully clear the ball out of their zone.
Plattsburgh was able to clear the ball out of their zone 17-21 times compared to Potsdam only able to complete 14-29 of the clears which is a clear indication of why Plattsburgh was able to get more shots off. This led to more goals, which led to a nice win by the Cardinals.
Later in the week, the Cardinals welcomed the number 23 team, Brockport Golden Eagles. Unlike earlier in the week, the Cardinals were not able to handle the sheer offensive side.
The Golden Eagles outshot the Cardinals 40-17. After that the numbers don’t deviate much from each other keeping it close all throughout the statsheet. The Cardinals were able to score twice in the first quarter. After that, the Cardinals were not able to find the back of the net until the fourth quarter.
Although the showing for the Cardinals was not something they would like to ponder on, they didn’t have too. Three days later April 27, when New Paltz came to Plattsburgh. Although New Paltz didn’t have a playoff spot locked up yet, they are currently ranked fifth in the SUNYAC and seem to be next in line to pick up another playoff spot.
If the Cardinals were going to make a statement. this had to be the game to do it.
Although Plattsburgh wasn’t able to outshoot New Paltz, the Cardinals were still able to find the back of the net. The Cardinals found themselves in a rut midway through the second quarter being down by a score of 7-4. Although Plattsburgh wasn’t able to outshoot New Paltz, the Cardinals were still able to find the back of the net.
The Cardinals found themselves in a rut midway through the second quarter being down by a score of 7-4. The comeback started out with a goal late in the 2nd quarter scored by Lindsay Guzzetta.
After the clock started ticking into the third quarter the Cardinals turned on a switch and kept New Paltz at bay, not allowing them to score a single goal until 6:01 in the fourth quarter. By then for New Paltz it was too late. The Cardinals had already scored seven unanswered goals, and there was not much time for New Paltz to recover. The Cardinals went on to win the game 12-9.
Although the Cardinals are still on the outside looking in, when it comes to playoffs, that won’t stop the Cardinals from competing.
The Cardinals are sitting at 5-8 on the season which is something they can recover from and still find their way into the playoffs.
