Cortland Standard .net

By ALAN BUTLER
Sports Editor
For the fifth consecutive season, the SUNY Cortland women’s lacrosse team will be playing in the NCAA Division III tournament’s Final Four.
What the Red Dragons are looking to change from their previous run of post-season success is getting beyond the treacherous semifinal round, where they have been bounced out of the tournament the previous four seasons.
The Red Dragons will bring a 20-1 overall record and a 17-game unbeaten streak into Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal game against Middlebury College out of Vermont, the first of two semifinals being played at PPL Park in Philadelphia.
Trinity College from Connecticut and Pennsylvania’s Franklin & Marshall are in the second semifinal slated for a 4 p.m. start.
The semifinal survivors will meet for the national title at 4:30 p.m. Sunday back at PPL Park.
Senior midfielder Emma Hayes-Hurley and junior middie Ashley Gentile received first-team Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III All-America status this week for the Red Dragons heading into the semifinal showdown with 16-3 Middlebury.
Gentile suffered an ankle injury in a third round win over Augustana this past Saturday, and was a well-bandaged spectator when Cortland survived a second half scare before beating Catholic 13-12 in Sunday’s quarterfinal round contest. The Red Dragons had jumped out to a 9-2 lead in that home game.
“She’s making progress every day. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” said Red Dragons head coach Kelly Lickert-Orr, hoping Gentile will be available for the weekend.
Cortland departed for Philly on Thursday, will feast at an NCAA banquet this evening and then takes on the challenge of capturing a national championship to put those previous semifinal stumbles behind them.
“It’s not just my excitement,” said Lickert-Orr of her first deep tournament run as a coach. “It’s fun seeing these girls get excited about redeeming themselves and getting that monkey off their backs.”
IN HER FIRST SEASON at Cortland, Lickert-Orr was not afraid to tinker with this successful program after posting an impressive 52-11 won-loss record over four seasons coaching at Keuka College.
“It’s a completely different team than Coach (Kathy) Taylor had,” said Lickert-Orr, as Taylor moved on to Le Moyne College in Syracuse — where the Dolphins lost in the NCAA Division II tournament semifinals last weekend.
“I don’t have the same coaching style. There are some similarities with what we had to work with talent-wise, but this is a completely different team,” she added. “We definitely came in and shook it up.”
First-team All-American’s Hayes-Hurley and Gentile head up the Red Dragons.
Hayes-Hurley has scored 68 goals to go along with 15 assists, and has also tops the team with 168 draw controls. Her 8.0 draws per game average is second best in Division III. In three seasons at Cortland, the Huntington native ranks 10th with 160 career goals and 14th with 193 points.
Gentile has scored 73 goals to go along with seven assists. She is also second on the team with 67 draw controls, tied for second with 37 ground balls and third with 20 caused turnovers. In three seasons at Cortland, the Baldwinsville native has 102 goals and 10 assists.
Gentile and Hayes-Hurley were also named to the IWLCA All-Empire Region first team along with junior defender Colleen Wright. Junior midfielder Tara Monaghan and sophomore attack Kristen Ohberg were named to the all-region second team.
Wright has posted totals of 31 ground balls, 13 draw controls and eight caused turnovers. She’s helped lead a Cortland defensive unit that allows 7.4 goals per game.
MONAGHAN LEADS the Red Dragons with 74 goals and 88 total points. She’s also the team leader with 22 caused turnovers, is tied for second with 37 ground balls and ranks third with 64 draw controls. In her three-year career, Monaghan has registered 151 goals and 28 assists for 179 points.
Attacker Ohberg has 48 goals and 35 assists this season, and has also has totaled 21 ground balls. In just two seasons, the Brewster native with 101 goals and 66 assists at Cortland.
Senior Marilyn Farrell tops the team with 45 assists to go along with 11 goals, while Nicole Bello (31 goals-18 assists) and Hanna Elmer (21-20) are also featured in an offense that averaged over 17 goals per game.
The play in goal of sophomore Jaclyn Beshlian, who beat out returning starter Liz Ingalls, has also been crucial to Cortland success. In 15 starts, Beshlian has a 6.69 goals against average working behind an ever-improving defense featuring Wright, senior Melissa Halstead, senior Chelsea Martin and sophomore Hilary O’Neil.
Getting a challenge from Catholic was a good learning experience, too, for a Cortland team that has not lost since defending national champion Salisbury was a narrow 13-11 winner over the Red Dragons back on March 22 in Maryland.
“It was a good test for us,” said Lickert-Orr of the Catholic contest. “We got a little complacent watching the clock and it was a bad habit to get into, not doing what we’re good at, which is scoring goals and putting points on the board.”
MIDDLEBURY SHOULD also provide a test.
“They’re a solid team. They have good scorers, feeders... they’re solid all the way through,” said Lickert-Orr of Middlebury, where Coach Missy Foote is spending her 38th season on the Panthers sideline.
Middlebury has well-balanced scoring with senior Katie Ritter (39 goals-31 assists), junior Laurel Pascal (44-8), sophomore Mary O’Connell (32-18) and junior Bridget Instrum (40-8).
After losing in their conference semifinals, the Panthers beat MIT 19-9, Hamilton 18-10 and York (Pa.) 10-8 to begin this NCAA run to the semifinals.