The women’s soccer team’s goal of winning the SUNYAC Conference Championship will have to wait another year, as the team lost to Plattsburgh Saturday, ending their chance to qualify for the SUNYAC Tournament and officially putting an end to their uphill battle.
The Bengals (6-8-1) split their two conference games at Coyer Field over the weekend, defeating last-place Potsdam (3-9-2) by a score of 3-1 on Friday before being shut out by the third-place Cardinals (6-4-3), Saturday, 1-0, in the must-win affair.
“It’s disappointing because we know we’re so much better than our record shows this season,” said senior midfielder and team captain Tina Bobersykj. “We’ve battled back all season long and we really thought we still had a great shot to make the playoffs.”
The Bengals continued a season-long trend of falling into an early deficit against Potsdam after forward Heather Johnson scored in the 10th minute to give the Bears the lead.
The Bengals would answer back later in the first half, as junior midfielder Katie Hennes connected on a pass from sophomore forward Amanda Smyth to tie the game at 1-1.
Buffalo State would go on to take a 3-1 lead before the intermission on an unassisted goal from senior midfielder Amanda Sauer and another tally from freshman midfielder M.J. Maitland-Walker, whose goal marked the first of her collegiate career.
Junior goalkeeper Virginia Porten made three saves as the Bengals held onto their 3-1 lead to earn the win.
“We played a good game against Potsdam, but that was expected,” said senior defender Ashley Mazurkiewicz. “Our goal all week was to beat Potsdam and then take care of business against Plattsburgh, so at least things started off as planned.”
The game against Plattsburgh didn’t go the way Buffalo State planned, though. The Bengals fell into another early hole in their last home game of the year, only this time it was one they wouldn’t be able to climb out of.
Cardinals’ midfielder Emily LaLone scored the game’s lone goal in the 37th minute off of a direct kick from 18 yards out.
The Bengals had many opportunities to tie the game up as time progressed, but Cardinals’ goalkeeper Monica D’Ippolito made four saves to preserve the win for Plattsburgh.
Porten also made six saves of her own and Plattsburgh out-shot Buffalo State 13-11 in the loss that officially eliminated the Bengals from postseason play.
“The loss to Plattsburgh basically summed up our entire season with one word: frustrating,” Boberskyj said. “The slow starts hurt us all year long. The littlest details sometimes are the difference in one-goal games, and we lost a lot of those this season.”
The Bengals will round out their season on the road with three games left to play. The first two will take place this weekend as the team heads to Oneonta on Friday to face off against the fourth-place Red Dragons before travelling to New Paltz on Saturday to take on the fifth-place Hawks.
The Bengals conclude their season next Tuesday in Rochester against non-conference opponent St. John Fisher.
Despite the disappointing end to a season that was filled with higher expectations after last year’s promising 11-6-3 finish, head coach Nick DeMarsh still said there are plenty of reasons to finish off the year on a high note.
“Obviously we’re disappointed but we’ll go into our final three games with our heads high,” he said. “Now it’s all about pride and integrity and giving our seniors a great farewell.”
Boberskyj, who is one of the team’s four seniors set to play in their final games this week, said she agrees with her coach.
“It’ll be business as usual. We’ve never beaten Oneonta so a win against them would be nice,” she said. “We’ll still be out there working hard. Maybe we’ll even be able to ruin someone else’s playoff chances while we’re at it.”
Brandon Schlager can be reached by email at schlager.record@live.com.