The Lakers found their playoff hopes fractured, if not broken completely, on Saturday when they dropped a conference match up to No. 19 The College at Brockport at the South Athletic Field, 12-10.
The Golden Eagles’ (9-4, 3-3 SUNYAC) tag team of junior attacker Nina Tassone and freshman attacker Kelly Wall proved too much for the Lakers to handle. The tandem combined for nine of Brockport’s 12 goals on the day, with Tassone assisting on another.
“We just had a couple of girls that didn’t have their best games,” said head coach Brandi Lusk. “It’s going to happen. You know, we played such good defense this entire season, we were bound to play a game where communication wasn’t there.”
Sophomore attacker and Lakers co-captain Esther Gabriel paced the team in goals, scoring three, bringing her season total to 23. Senior midfielder Mackenzie Kjerstad added three points on two goals and an assist to match Gabriel in scoring for the game.
It was a game of runs for both sides. Gabriel opened the scoring with a goal at the 28:56 mark of the first half. Tassone tied the game less than two minutes later at 27:12 on a free position shot she put between Laker goalie Nikki Greco’s legs.
Kjerstad gave the Lakers their second and final lead of the game at 26:39 when she charged through the middle of the field and fired a shot from the 12-meter arc that bounced in front of Brockport goalie Remle Harr.
Lakers’ leading scorer Erannan Shattuck scored her only goal of the contest, tying the game up at 16:25, after Hailey Boronczyk and Makensie Schuber scored off free positions for Brockport.
Tassone and Wall made their presence known as Tassone scored at 15:23, followed by a Wall goal at 14:33 off tic-tac-toe passing between the two.
Brockport went on a run to end the first half scoring three unanswered goals to take a 10-6 lead into the next frame.
The Lakers managed to make it close, getting goals from Gabriel, Kjerstad and Kelsey Henderson to draw within one at 10-9. But another goal by Boronczyk and one from Lauren Mancini put the game away for Brockport.
