Field hockey continues remarkable season with another shutout victory
Junior defender Lauren Briody shows off tremendous ball control via geneseoknights.com
For the past several seasons, field hockey has been a sport that SUNY Geneseo has excelled at. With six consecutive winning seasons and phenomenal interconference records, the Knights have been a struggle for many competing teams to handle. Through outstanding play and coaching, winning has become part of the culture for Geneseo. Many teams go through ups and downs as the years pass, but the Knights have been on that upslope for a while, and the 2022 season is no different thus far.
The Geneseo Field Hockey team triumphed over SUNY Cortland on Saturday with a shutout score of 2-0. This win marks Geneseo’s fifth-straight shutout, a program record. This is also the Knights’ first win over Cortland since the 2019 SUNYAC Championship; prior to this matchup, Cortland was ranked top 20, but was no match for the Geneseo Knights.
With five shots being tallied by Geneseo in the first quarter, none of them were able to find the back of the net. Meanwhile, Cortland was unable to even get a single shot off in the first quarter. Geneseo’s first score came in the second quarter, and another came only a few minutes later, in the third quarter. Both goals can be attributed to junior forward Katrina Clare, who tallied their fifth and sixth goals of the season. This marks her second multi-goal game of the season, after just one last season. Clare leads the team in goals, shots, and shots on goal after this memorable performance. On track to score more goals than last season, Clare is heading towards a stellar junior season with the Knights.
The victory would not have been possible without assists from both senior forward Maggie Phipps and senior midfielder Cassidy Sturdevant. Phipps racked up the first assist with a beautiful second quarter play which allowed Clare to tap it past the goalkeeper. Sturdevant made her presence known throughout the game with three shots, and the third quarter assist to Clare, making it a 2-0 game, which would ultimately be the final score. These two amazing plays mark Phipps’ second assist of the 2022 season, and Sturdevant’s first, with many more to come.
No shutout victory is achievable without tremendous goalkeeping, and Sarah Quinlan did just that. The senior goalie amassed a season-high four saves, stopping every shot that came her way. Quinlan now has 19 saves on the season while stopping nearly 80% of shots on goal. The Red Dragons had fired a good shot in the fourth quarter, but it was no match for Quinlan, who made an outstanding save.
The win against Cortland propelled the team to a tremendous 8-2 record, and an undefeated 2-0 record in SUNYAC games. With several more regular season games to go, Geneseo is looking at a historic season and hoping to lock in a seventh consecutive winning season. Having a phenomenal record both at home and on the road, the Knights’ pose a serious threat to any team that lines up against them. With four more SUNYAC games, Geneseo Field Hockey has shown no signs of slowing down.