Post Classifieds
Ladies clinch playoff spot as No. 5 seed
By Leif Reigstad
On October 24, 2012
The Buffalo State women's soccer team rode a 4-1-5 record over its final ten games to qualify
for the SUNYAC playoffs, finishing the regular season slate last weekend with a 2-1 win over
New Paltz on Friday and a 3-1 loss to Oneonta on Saturday.
Buffalo State (5-7-5/3-2-4 SUNYAC) needed just one point over the weekend to clinch a playoff
spot. The Bengals were confident they could get the job done at home against New Paltz (11-5-1,
4-4-1 SUNYAC), a team they typically play well against.
The Hawks scored in the 8th minute to take a 1-0 lead. But the Bengals, no strangers to early
deficits, still managed to come away with a win.
"It was a cross, they got on the end of it and finished," head coach Nick DeMarsh said. "My
team responded how they always have this whole year, and that is fight back, claw back, and win
the game."
Co-captain Shannon Yokopovich managed to find the net in the 35th minute, tying the game on a
header off of a corner kick from freshman Kristin Seiferth.
The game remained tied until the 83rd minute, when Seiferth once again found Yokopovich on a
corner . The junior headed the ball in once again for the game winner.
"It was off a corner to the back post," Yokopovich said. "Our attacker did a really nice job
getting in the goalie's way so the ball could get past her to me."
The Bengals' set pieces were on point all game. Seiferth's corners were perfectly placed, giving
her teammates a chance to finish from dangerous areas.
"I was trying to look for (Yokopovich) to get a head or get a touch," Seiferth said. "I was just
trying to get a good kick, and it worked out."
The Bengals clinched a playoff spot with the three points, but the win was bittersweet due to an
injury to starting center back Jordan Dudish. She left the game in the 79th minute and did not
return.
Dudish's injury was compounded when fellow center back Gabrianna Boldinski went down
with an injury in the 90th minute. The freshman was slow to get up after getting fouled, and was
subbed out right away.
"Against New Paltz, all of our center backs sustained pretty serious injuries," DeMarsh said. "So
we limped into the Oneonta game. We slid some players around and made some adjustments that
kind of took us out of our game and hurt us in other areas."
Boldinski was back in the starting lineup against Oneonta on a cold and wet Saturday at Coyer
Field. The teams played an intense, fast-paced opening 30 minutes.
The first-place Red Dragons (11-5-1, 7-2-0 SUNYAC) gradually took control, scoring in the
39th minute.
In the 43rd minute, Bengals' freshman Taylor Volkman broke free from the Red Dragon defense.
An Oneonta player grabbed Volkman's jersey, slowing her down just enough to prevent a shot.
A foul was called, awarding the Bengals a free kick from 30 yards out.
Yokopovich stepped up to take the kick. She scored a highlight-reel goal, drilling the ball over a
two-man wall and into the upper left corner of the net.
"I just focused on keeping my head down, like I do in practice," Yokopovich said. "That's
always been an obstacle for me - either the ball goes too high or it goes wide. So I kept my
head down, and I made it."
"She's amazing, as usual," Seiferth said.
However, Buffalo State then conceded a backbreaking goal with just ten seconds to go in the
half.
Elise Moinzadeh scored off of a through ball, beating Bengals' goalkeeper Linda Banfield one-
on-one with a low shot to the far post.
"We didn't recover from that goal," DeMarsh said. "It was several individual errors that just
compounded, and it ended up in the back of the net."
Oneonta added a third goal in the 71st minute for some insurance.
The Bengals host St. John Fisher in a non-conference game Tuesday before heading to Cortland
for the first round of the SUNYAC playoffs Saturday.
Considering the Bengals' rough start to the season (one win in their first seven games),
qualifying for the postseason seemed unlikely just a month ago. DeMarsh attributed the poor
start to injuries and inexperience.
Buffalo State's final ten games were highlighted by a nine-game undefeated streak that ended
with Saturday's loss to Oneonta.
"The key to the turnaround was getting healthy and the girls believing in the system and what
we do," DeMarsh said. "Our freshmen grew up, and I think we grew as a team. We got really
stubborn, we became hard to beat.
"This group banded together knowing that we had a bunch of people out there doubting us and
saying that we couldn't do it," he said. "And that kind of motivated us. We set out to prove
everybody wrong."
As the fifth seed in the six-team bracket, the Bengals are far from favorites to win the SUNYAC
championship. If they want to make a deep postseason run, they'll have to prove everyone wrong
once more.
But by now, the Buffalo State women's soccer team is used to that.
Leif Reigstad can be reached by email at reigstad.record@live.com.
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