BUFFALO STATE ATHLETICS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo State and Fredonia will kick-off the 2018-19 “Battle by the Lake” competition this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. with a match during SUNYAC play held at Cortland.
Prior to Saturday’s match, Buffalo State will open the 2018 SUNYAC regular season against New Paltz on Friday at 7 p.m. The Bengals enter conference play with a 3-10 overall record following a pair of losses to close out the Bengal Challenge. Eimile O’Brien (Marietta/Marcellus) and Alena McKelvey (Buffalo/City Honors) lead the Bengals with 77 and 74 kills respectively. Brooke Federko (Jamestown/Jamestown) leads the team in assists with 205 assists this season.
Fredonia enters the weekend with a 7-4 overall record, following a pair of recent losses to Nazareth and Mount Union, and will open SUNYAC play against host Cortland on Friday at 5 p.m. The Blue Devils are led by SallyAnne Rudny and Kailey Falk who currently are fourth and sixth in the SUNYAC with 137 kills and 102 kills respectively. Amanda Mosack leads the SUNYAC with 430 assists this season.
In addition to the SUNYAC implications riding on this contests, a total of two points are up for grabs in the Battle by the Lake competition. Fredonia retained the Lake Erie Cup with a 19-13 win during the 2017-18 seasons.
The next “Battle by the Lake” showdown will be on Saturday, October 6 as both the Buffalo State women’s and men’s soccer teams will compete against Fredonia. The Bengals will play host to Fredonia’s women’s soccer team on Coyer Field at 1 p.m., while the Blue Devils will host the men’s soccer contest at the University Stadium at 1 p.m.
Established for the 2014-15 season, the “Battle by the Lake” is a season-long “all sports” competition between Buffalo State and Fredonia. Each sport in which the two schools compete is worth two points annually. In sports which meet once per regular season, each game is worth two points and ties are worth one point. In sports that play twice during the regular season (softball, men’s hockey and men’s and women’s basketball), each game will be worth one point, and ties will be worth a point. In the sports of cross country, swimming & diving, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field, the team that finishes higher at the SUNYAC Championship meet will earn two points for its school. The school with the most points at the end of the season will earn the Lake Erie Cup and keep the cup on its campus for the following year (non-conference and postseason matchups will not count toward the Lake Erie Cup competition).
