NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – The Oswego State women’s lacrosse team suffered a heartbreaking 21-20 loss at New Paltz in a seesaw battle on Tuesday afternoon. Rachael Raffa (Sr., Kings Park, N.Y.) and Erin Cummings (Sr., Valley Cottage, N.Y.) paced the Lakers (3-7, 0-5 SUNYAC) with eight and seven goals, respectively, in the losing effort. With the score tied, the Hawks (6-8, 1-4) scored two of the final three goals with under ten minutes to play in regulation.
Raffa, Cummings and Danielle Citro (Jr., Miller Place, N.Y.) erased an early 3-0 New Paltz lead to tie the game. However, the Hawks rattled off five straight goals through the midway point to go ahead 8-3.
Cummings and Raffa combined to score four of the next six goals, while Corinne Marsh (So., Endwell, N.Y.) added another Oswego State goal to bring the visitors back to within one at 9-8. Each squad traded goals before the end of the half giving the Hawks a 10-9 advantage heading into the second half.
New Paltz opened up a four-goal lead less than three minutes into the frame, resulting in Lauren Marois (Jr., Clifton Park, N.Y.) replacing Ashlee Engel (Jr., Webster, N.Y.) in the cage after Engel stopped nine shots.
Cummings stopped the scoring string to fuel five consecutive Laker goals with Kasey Kuzma (Jr., Endicott, N.Y.) posting a goal and Raffa recording four to give Oswego State its first lead of the game at 15-14. New Paltz evened the score minutes later before Raffa and Cummings tallied two man-down goals to give the Lakers a two-goal advantage.
The teams went back-and-forth until the score was level at 19 goals apiece with 9:28 remaining. Carissa Citro and Julia Donato netted two goals for the Hawks. Raffa pulled Oswego State to within one goal with 2:35 left on the clock. Oswego State had a free position attempt to tie the game, but it went wide left of the cage.
Stephanie Cronk (Jr., Endwell, N.Y.) joined the scoring with a goal and two assists, while Candace Tarana (So., Rochester, N.Y.) handed out three helpers and Kaila Curatalo (So., Rochester, N.Y.) posted one assist. Citro finished with two goals and two assists. Marois ended the game with nine saves.
New Paltz was paced by Donato’s five goals and an assist and Julia Johnson’s four goals and two assists. Stefanie Mignone picked up the win after stopping six saves in the cage.
Oswego State travels to Medaille for a Thursday contest starting at 4 p.m.
