GENESEO COMES BACK TO BEAT SAINTS IN OVERTIME

April 27: Sophomore midfielder Shauna Leonard tied the game with 2:58 to play in regulation time and senior Melody Kuzniar scored the game winner with 59 seconds to go in the second of a pair of three minute overtime periods as SUNY Geneseo came back from a 10-1 first half deficit to win 14-13 in women’s college lacrosse on Thursday.

The Blue Knights improve to 11-1 on the season going into a SUNYAC showdown with Cortland State on Saturday while the Saints fall to 5-7 with RIT visiting Canton for a Saturday afternoon game.

The Saints got off to a perfect start, converting quickly after draw controls in the first 21 minutes of the game. Meghan Clement scored three goals and set up another and Sofie Malinowski had three as the Saints raced out to their 10-1 lead.

Geneseo started battling its way back and scored the final four goals of the first half to cut the Saint lead to 10-5 at the intermission.

Leonard and Amy Glover scored back-to-back goals for Geneseo to start the second half, cutting the Saint lead to 10-7, but SLU scored three straight, two of them off free positions, to take a 13-8 lead with 18:44 to go in regulation.

The Saints then lost senior midfielder Clement to a leg injury and Geneseo started dominating the draws as the comeback gained momentum.

Defender Jacqueline Griffin drew a charge along the sideline with under four minutes to play to force a Saint turnover with Geneseo trailing 13-12 and Leonard worked her way into a one-on-one with Saint goalie Ali Mattison to score the tying goal with 2:58 to go. Mattison then saved a free position shot by Maggie Benham with seven seconds left to force the overtime and had another one-on-one save on Benham with three seconds left in the first of the two three minute periods.

Kuzniar’s fourth of the game was the winner and Geneseo won the draw following the goal and tried to run out the clock. The Saints forced a turnover and Susannah Whitaker-Rahilly had a free position shot with one second left on the game clock, but her bid to re-tie the game went wide.

Mattison and Geneseo goalie Jess Pausewang each finished with 13 saves in the game and Geneseo had a 39-31 edge in shots overall.

Kuzniar had four goals and two assists and Leonard had four goals for the Knights while Malinowski finished with four goals to join Clement as the scoring leaders for the Saints.