After a roller coaster start to the season, the SUNY Cortland Women’s lacrosse team seems to have finally found the momentum to win.
The Red Dragons are finishing this week’s play on a 6-game winning streak, four in a row in SUNYAC play. Conference play will continue as Cortland heads into a home game Saturday against Buffalo State, with their record sitting at 9-3.
“We didn’t have the start we wanted but we’re definitely starting to figure things out,” said Hannah Keech. “Our offense wasn’t clicking at first, so we had a tough time putting the ball in the back of the net. Over the past few weeks in practice, we’ve fine tuned the little things and we’re on our way to putting it all together. Everyday our goal is to get better on the things we’ve been struggling with, and we’ve done just that!”
Over the past week Cortland has welcomed 4 new players to the 100 club. Both Toni Cashman (JR) and Keech (GR) recorded their 100th goal as Red Dragons. As well as Amy Hoeffner (GR) securing over 100 draw controls, and Lauren Hopsticker (GR) with 100 total career points. The talent on the offensive side of the field is definitely shining through in the scores of recent games. The Red Dragons have been dominating the SUNYAC conference, winning their last 5 games by 10 or more goals.
“What stands out to me is our ability to be flexible and adaptable to any situation we are handed,” said Cashman, who was named Cortland Athlete of the Week after hitting the century mark in goals. “We are all ready to step up to any position we are needed. We lost one of key players early in the season, Gabby Meager, to a torn ACL and meniscus. It was a huge hit to our team but since then everyone has stepped up and embraced the role they have been given.”
At the start of the season, the team was struggling to execute on plays, and ultimately get the ball in the back of the net, but over the past 5 games, they have completely transformed their offense. They are dominating the SUNYAC conference and are showing no signs of slowing down.
“I think moving forward we need to keep the mindset of getting better every single day,” said Keech. “We need to remain focused on each game and keep rolling with the momentum that we’ve built. If we stay dialed in, I know we will have a lot of success in our games to come.”
Throughout this season, even with the loss of Gabby Meager, the Red Dragon offense has been impressive. But on top of an offense that has proven they have the ability to perform, their defense is not one to look past. Over the past 7 games, they have held opponents to under 10 goals, 4 of those were 5 or less. The team is strong on both ends of the field, they have a lot of talent, and they have chemistry that is going to make it hard for other teams to beat them.
The Red Dragons will host Buffalo State on Saturday (4/15) at 3:30PM.