STAFF REPORTS
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GENESEO — The Buffalo State women’s lacrosse team heads to Geneseo this afternoon to take on the Knights in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Quarterfinals at 4 p.m.
The Bengals punched their ticket to the conference playoffs for the first time since 2015, earning the tournament’s No. 6 seed. Buffalo State finished the year 6-10 overall including a 3-5 mark in conference play.
Geneseo earned the No. 3 seed after going 8-8 overall and 5-3 in SUNYAC play. The Knights are making their fifth-straight SUNYAC tournament after winning their final three conference games to end the season.
Buffalo State is led on offense by junior attacker Christina Krowel (Amsterdam/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake), who sits fourth in the SUNYAC with 40 goals and ninth in the conference with 49 assists. Senior midfielder Cassie Saint-Vil (Middletown/Middletown) leads the team in ground balls (53), caused turnovers (28) and draw controls (61). She has also netted 14 goals to held round out the Bengal attack. The Bengals leading scorer, Alanna Herne (Tonawanda/Tonawanda), leads the entire SUNYAC with 82 points on 33 goals and 49 assists in 15 games, but is sidelined with an injury and will not play in today’s contest.
Buffalo State finished fourth in the conference as a team in scoring, netting 167 goals in 16 games. The Bengals were also fourth in goals-per-game (10.44) and led the SUNYAC with a 48 percent shooting percentage.
Buffalo State owns a 2-8 all-time mark in the SUNYAC Championships, including a 1-1 record against Geneseo. The Bengals earned a 19-9 victory over the Knights in the 2009 semifinals, while falling in the quarterfinals, 12-3, on the road in 2015.
The two teams met once during the regular season, as Geneseo escaped with a 12-11 victory after the Bengals went on a furious comeback attempt that just fell short. The Knights held a 12-7 lead with six minutes left before Buffalo State score four times over the final five minutes to make it a one-goal game.
The winner of today’s contest will advance to the semifinals on Friday to take on No. 2 Cortland at 12:30 p.m. Tournament host and top-seeded Brockport will square off with the winner of Tuesday’s other quarterfinal between fifth-seeded Oneonta and fourth-seeded Oswego. The tournament championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Brockport.