Link to sectional information
ONEONTA, N.Y.—They say that familiarity breeds content. This weekend, the SUNY Oneonta women's soccer team will face a familiar foe when it plays William Smith in the NCAA Div. III sectional round in Geneva, N.Y. The Red Dragons will play host William Smith in the first game on Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. and, if Oneonta can record another victory, will play in the round of eight on Sunday at 1:00 p.m., playing for an opportunity to reach its second final four.
Oneonta and William Smith have met nine times including a match this year on Oct. 16 at William Smith, which the Herons won 2-0. The two have only met one other time in the NCAA tournament and that was in 2000 in Geneva. The Herons came away with a 2-1 win in overtime, which was at that time, the New York Region championship. Current Oneonta coach,
Liz McGrail, scored the Red Dragons' lone goal in the contest.
Oneonta (17-4-2) reached the sectional round of this year's tournament after disposing Roger Williams, 3-0, in the first round and the University of Rochester, 2-0, in the second round. Both contests were at the friendly confines of Red Dragon Field.
Leading the attack for the Red Dragons during the weekend was the trio of senior
Nha Wright (Schenectady), junior
Dana DeSimone (Clifton Park) and sophomore
Kayla Brantmeyer (Center Moriches). DeSimone and Brantmeyer each had two goals while Wright had one goal and an assist. Brantmeyer had a highlight goal against Rochester where she went end-to-end to put the ball behind the keeper, which gave Oneonta a 1-0 lead.
DeSimone added to her team-leading total in goals and now has 13 and 27 points entering this weekend. Wright has nine goals and five assists for 23 points. Brantmeyer has seven goals and two assists for 16 points.
Goalkeeper
Amy Lusby (West Babylon/N. Babylon) and the defense recorded back-to-back shutouts for the fourth time this season. She now has nine shutouts on the season and has lowered her goals against to 0.66. She has played 1908 minutes in goal and is 15-4-2 overall. The solid defense in front of Lusby is seniors
Erin Boyle (West Babylon) and
Caitlin Burke (Manorville) and junior
Alanna Fisher (Suffern) and freshman
Amanda Regensburger (Selden).
Rounding out the field in this weekend's sectional is Williams College and Eastern Connecticut State University. The two will play in the late game on Saturday. Williams is 14-3-2 overall entering this weekend while Eastern Connecticut is unbeaten at 16-0-5.
Williams defeated Lasell 3-0 in its first round match before beating Brandeis University 6-0 in the second round.
ECSU squeaked out a 1-0 victory in its NCAA opener against Worcester State before taking Wheaton College out in a shootout, 3-1.
During the third weekend of the season, Oneonta hosted Williams the day after the Ephs had played William Smith. Williams fell to William Smith 3-1, but narrowly defeated Oneonta 1-0 to split its weekend road trip to New York State.
Last year, Williams defeated Oneonta 2-1 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. That match was in Williamstown, Mass.
If they meet, Oneonta has played Eastern Connecticut twice before, but not since 2003. The Red Dragons and the Warriors have split its two meetings; the first was a win for Eastern, 1-0, at the University of Rochester tournament in 2001. The second meeting was a 1-0 win for the Red Dragons in the Oneonta Mayor's Cup tournament.
Oneonta is making its 12th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2010, currently the longest such streak for women's soccer in New York State at all NCAA levels. They have won one national championship, which came in 2003 on its home field, a 2-1 overtime victory against the University of Chicago.
The NCAA tournament began with 63 teams and is now down to the final 16 schools. After this weekend's sectional round there will be four teams remaining. The national championship weekend is Dec. 3-4 at Blossom Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.
