Cortland Standard .net

By ALAN BUTLER
Sports Editor
The SUNY Cortland women’s lacrosse team would have preferred cruising into the NCAA Division III Final Four for a fifth consecutive season.
And the Red Dragons were on the verge of doing just that on Sunday afternoon on their home Stadium Complex turf, before Catholic University nearly spoiled things.
After having out-scored their two previous tournament foes by a whopping 42-6 margin, Cortland used a run of eight unanswered goals to secure a 9-2 halftime lead against Catholic. The Red Dragons practically had their bags packed for this coming Memorial Day weekend’s trip to PPL Park outside of Philadelphia.
But before making those travel plans the Red Dragons had to handle some late-game anxiety. holding off an impressive second half charge by the Cardinals from Washington. D.C. and holding on for a too-close-for-comfort 13-12 victory.
“You never want a game like this, you want a comfortable win, but it makes us more prepared moving forward,” reasoned Cortland head coach Kelly Lickert-Orr, whose 20-1 squad will now face Vermont’s Middlebury College in this coming Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal contest at PPL Park.
So being tested like this might turn out to be a good thing for the Red Dragons, winners of 17 consecutive games including recently capturing a 17th consecutive SUNY Athletic Conference title.
“We were just talking about that as a team,” said sophomore attack Kristen Ohberg, who scored a team-high five goals for Cortland. “I think we needed this to prepare ourselves going into the Final Four, and they gave us great competition. It’s great to get some competition right before going into the Final Four in Philly.”
Ohberg’s fifth goal came with just under 13 minutes to play, gaining possession following a frantic ground ball scrum near the Catholic crease and breaking in alone on goal to put Cortland ahead 12-8.
Catholic (16-4) responded by getting goals from top scorer Nicolette Crisalli and Lindsay Brophy to pull within 12-10 a mere 4:54 from the finish. Cortland won the ensuing draw, called a time-out with 4:32 left and emerged from that chat getting a point-blank goal from freshman Hannah Elmer from senior Marilyn Farrell’s second assist of the day.
THAT STILL DIDN’T deter the Cardinals.
Even though Cortland’s Tara Monaghan secured the draw following Elmer’s goal, the Red Dragons lost possession and Catholic’s Madeline Wilson was circling from behind the net and scoring to make this a 13-11 game with 1:24 left.
Even though Cortland’s Nicolete Tortorici secured the draw following Wilson’s goal, the Red Dragons lost possession and Crisalli was converting a scoring chance with a low shot off a Wilson feed and the Cardinals trailed just 13-12 with 54 ticks left on the clock.
Even though Cortland’s Emma Hayes-Hurley won the draw once more, the Red Dragons turned the ball over at 0:11 and a restart had a pair of Cardinals downfield ahead of the pack. Catholic could not complete the long pass, however, and the visitors were desperately chasing after the ball when the horn sounded to end things.
“I couldn’t be more proud. We just decided we needed to play our game and play with no regrets,” said head coach Meghan McDonogh of the Cardinals’ 10-goal second half revival. “That’s kind of been our tag-line in the post-season, and I don’t think we can regret anything we did in the second half because it’s pretty remarkable.”
Catholic nearly avenged a 19-12 regular season home field loss to Cortland back in March, as Crisalli finished with five goals, Wilson contributed four assists and a pair of goals and goalie Tricia Pehnke came up with 10 saves.
“They’re a good team. They’ve come a long ways since earlier in the season, and they played well today,” said Cortland’s Lickert-Orr of the Cardinals. “Their defense did a really good job and their goalie stepped up and played well, too.”
CORTLAND AND CATHOLIC had both breezed to third round victories on Saturday in a Stadium Complex regional twin bill, Cortland rolling past Augustana 21-2 and Catholic taking care of previously unbeaten Mount Union 21-8.
Cortland goalie Jaclyn Beshlian (9 saves) and counterpart Pehnke both stopped free position scoring chances in the opening two minutes to start things off on Sunday before the visitors grabbed 1-0 and 2-1 leads. That’s when the Red Dragons seemed to gain complete control.
Getting two-goal contributions from back-ups Tortorici and Elizabeth LaComb — who got more playing time with Cortland missing junior midfielder Ashley Gentile to an ankle injury suffered Saturday against Augustana — Cortland closed the opening half scoring eight unanswered goals. When Ohberg collected her fourth goal with a fast break finish off a Hayes-Hurley assist with 15 seconds left, the hosts held their 9-2 halftime edge.
“Early on Nicolette played really well for us and Liz LaComb stepped in. It was a good confidence boost for them,” said Coach Lickert-Orr. “Early on we pushed and played really hard and then I think we got a little complacent and watched the clock a little too much and they started chipping away. Luckily, they weren’t able to catch up.”
Cortland finished with a 33-26 shot edge, Monaghan scored twice and Hayes-Hurley collecting a goal and an assist. The Red Dragons also learned some things about themselves before heading back to the Final Four, where they have been ousted in the semifinals for four straight seasons.
“We need to work on a couple of things still, mainly stalling the ball. We definitely have to work on that,” said Ohberg, as late turnovers almost proved fatal. “We learned that we played with a lot of heart today, we did. We went out there and gave it our all and Catholic gave us a great game.”
Cortland 21, Augusta 2: On Saturday, Cortland scored four times over the opening four minutes and led 15-0 at halftime while cruising past the visitors from Illinois. Monaghan had five goals and one assist, Ohberg contributed four goals and two assists, Hayes-Hurley recorded three goals and an assist and LaComb netted three goals. Farrell passsed out six assists and also was part of the scoring with a goal.
Senior Hilary Kargl scored both of Augustana goals in the second half.