The SUNY Oneonta women's soccer team advanced past Fredonia today, 3-1, in the semifinals of the SUNYAC tournament being held at Roberts Wesleyan University.  The Red Dragons will now battle its rival Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland for the conference title tomorrow at 1pm, also at Roberts Wesleyan.  The winner of tomorrow's championship game will earn the automatic berth into the field of 65 for this year's NCAA Division III tournament, which begins next weekend with first and second round games.

Oneonta (12-6-1) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half and then got an insurance goal in the waning minutes to secure the victory.  Junior Karly DeSimone (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) scored a goal and added an assist to lead the Red Dragons, who outshot the Blue Devils 18-16 in the match.

“It was a total team effort today,” said head coach Liz McGrail.  “All of our goals came from three different players and our defense gave us a solid effort.  It was nice to avenge our earlier loss to Fredonia and we look forward to tomorrow's rematch with Cortland.”

In its regular season meeting back on Sep. 22, Oneonta lost 2-1 in overtime at Cortland.

Oneonta scored its first goal in the 14th minute when freshman Kayla Ceschini (Miller Place/Miller Place) scored an unassisted goal from six yards out into the lower right corner.  It was Ceschini's fourth goal of the season.

In the 27th minute, junior Alaina Greco (Ballston Spa/Ballston Spa) took a pass from DeSimone and rattled home her fourth goal of the season to make it 2-0.

Fredonia (12-4-4) made the match interesting in the 60th minute when they cut Oneonta's lead in half.  Reilly Condidoria was in the right place to put home a shot that came off the post after it was initially saved by Rori Stark (Brewster/Brewster).

DeSimone scored her unassisted goal in the 88th minute when she was able to get a shot off in a crowd in front of the goal.

Oneonta is making its 17th SUNYAC tournament appearance this fall, as they chase its 14th conference title.  Oneonta's has played in 11 title matches all-time and has put together a 9-1-1 record in those games.  The Red Dragons last title came in 2010.  Oneonta won nine straight SUNYAC championships from 1999-2008, which is the longest such streak in the history of the conference.

Oneonta and Cortland have played five times for the SUNYAC championship with all five going to Oneonta.  Oneonta has outscored Cortland in the five championship games 13-3.  The last time the two met in the conference championship game was in 2007 with Oneonta winning 3-1.  That year the tournament was held at the National Soccer Hall of Fame.