The Oswego State women’s soccer team lost to Hamilton College on Tuesday, 4-2.
The Lakers fell to 3-4 on the season with the loss, after previously beating Clarkson University on Friday. Oswego State was looking to win back-to-back games for the first time this year, but instead fell back under the .500 mark. The Lakers have not lost consecutive games this season either.
Oswego State found themselves facing a large deficit early, as Hamilton College scored three goals in the first half. Hamilton’s Victoria Freeman scored the first of her two goals at the 20:19 mark, followed by goals from Hamilton’s Hallie Becker and Katie Kreider later in the half.
Trailing by three, the Lakers fought back in the second half. With an assist from sophomore Nicole Perniciaro, senior Tia Segretto found the back of the net at the 65:19 mark. Segretto’s fourth goal of the season would cut Hamilton’s lead to two.
Less than four minutes later, freshman Sarah Grupp’s first goal of the season would bring Oswego State to within one. Segretto was credited with an assist on the goal, adding to her already impressive day.
Keeping the pressure on, the Lakers took eight shots in the second half, doubling their total from the first. Hamilton was reduced to just four shots in the second half, compared to their 12 in the first.
Victoria Freeman’s second goal, and Hamilton’s fourth overall, came at the 87:33 mark. The Lakers looked to make a remarkable comeback with minutes remaining, but were unsuccessful in doing so.
Segretto, who had a hand in both goals scored by the Lakers, never doubted that the team could erase the deficit, but was disappointed with the end result.
“I know I never let up, we were home, that was motivation alone,” Segretto said. “We knew they were a great team, but I think we’re still better.”
Despite not completing the comeback, Segretto was proud of the way the team played, with their backs against the wall.
“It shows a lot of character for the whole team, it shows that we can do it,” Segretto said. “We dug ourselves too deep into a whole in the first half, if we didn’t do that, it probably would have been a positive outcome for us.”
Head coach Brian McGrane was also proud of the way the team responded, but ultimately disappointed with the final result.
“We gave up some pretty bad goals at the start. I think it took us too long to get into the game,” McGrane said. “The way we gave up goals today, defensively, it just wasn’t good enough.”
McGrane also thought that past matchups against Hamilton, may have influenced the Lakers play on Tuesday.
“We came out and just thought that they were so much better than we were, maybe because of past years results, but every year is different,”McGrane said. “We gave up a couple of weak goals, we didn’t track, we didn’t follow our marks, we were just very soft.”
The Lakers will now look ahead to Friday, where they will face the Oneonta Red Dragons at home.
“This is where the fun starts once you get into conference play, you can forget what non-conference records are like,” McGrane said. “Facing a team that has won the conference 13 of the last 15 years in Oneonta. If you can’t get up for that, you probably shouldn’t be playing sports.”
Even with Oneonta having the great success over the year. Coach McGrane has faith in his team against the Red Dragons.
“I think we’re ready. Our record may not look as good as it has in the past, but we hope our end result is a little bit better than it has been,” McGrane said. “They’ll be fine.”
Friday’s game against Oneonta will be at 4 P.M. at Laker Soccer Field.
