Same end for Danes women
For 8th straight year, Stony Brook defeats Ualbany in title game
For the eighth straight America East championship game and the 17th time in a row overall, the ending was the same when the University at Albany women’s lacrosse team met Stony Brook on Saturday.
The Seawolves celebrated and the Great Danes went home disappointed.
No. 1 seed Stony Brook downed No. 2 Ualbany 16-9 at Lavalle Stadium for the league title and automatic NCAA bid.
“It always is (hard),” said Ualbany graduate attack Madison Conway, who had four goals. “They’re our rivalry each year. It’s worse getting so close throughout this game. I think this was our best game against them, though we didn’t really execute as much as we wanted to, at all. I think we gave them our best more than we have in past years. It’s really hard being that close just to lose again.
But we gave it our all.”
The Great Danes (11-7) haven’t defeated the Seawolves (14-2), who are ranked sixth in Division I, since the 2012 America East title game. Stony Brook swept all three meetings this season.
On Saturday, Ualbany fell behind 5-1 just 12 minutes into the action. The Great Danes rallied to get within 9-6 in the second half before Stony Brook reeled off three straight goals to end the suspense.
“They just capitalized on some of their opportunities there early and went on a cou
ple of little momentum runs,” Great Danes coach Katie Rowan Thomson said. “But we fought hard and I’m just really proud of everything we did today.”
Ualbany sophomore Sarah Falk added a hat trick and senior Kyla Zapolski had a goal and three assists.
Great Danes graduate goalkeeper Georgia Schneidereith made seven saves in her final college game.
Graduate defender Jordyn Marr, a Shenendehowa graduate and daughter of Ualbany men’s coach Scott Marr, had four groundballs and caused three turnovers in her college finale. She returned for the extra year allowed by the NCAA because of COVID -19.
“We should be proud because we weren’t quarantined, we weren’t the ones to cancel any games,” Jordyn Marr said. “We did a really good job staying connected as a team through a challenging time like this. Overall, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I loved coming back.”
Rowan Thomson will try to find a way to beat Stony Brook with a returning cast that might include senior attack/midfielder Kendra Harbinger of Shenendehowa, who is mulling a return for another year.
“Just continue on the path we’ve been on,” Rowan Thomson said. “We really believe we’ve made a lot of strides and we’re going to continue with that, continue working hard and believing in each other.”