The SUNY Oneonta women's soccer team is playing for the SUNYAC championship, again.

The Red Dragons put away Brockport on Wednesday to advance into the title game this Saturday on Red Dragons Soccer Field against SUNY Geneseo beginning at 1pm.  Geneseo (7-7-5), who is the No. 6 seed, upset No. 3, SUNY Cortland, in a shootout in the first round and No. 2 Buffalo State, 2-1, on Wednesday in the semifinals.

Admission to Saturday's match is $6 for adults, $3 for children 5-12, and free for children under 5 and college students with a valid student ID.

This is Oneonta's 18th SUNYAC tournament appearance overall, as they seek their 12th conference title.  The Red Dragons have advanced to the championship game of the tournament 12 times, having won 10 of them including their last title in 2010.  The 11th title for Oneonta and its first was in 1997, when the SUNYAC champion was won by the regular season champion.

The Red Dragons, currently ranked No. 5 in the NCAA East Region poll, are 11-4-3 overall and completed their first unbeaten season in the conference this fall (6-0-3) since 2006 when the Red Dragons were 10-0 in the regular season in the SUNYAC.  Oneonta is 8-1-3 in its last 12 games leading up to Saturday's match.

In their regular season meeting back on Oct. 4 at Geneseo, the two teams battled to a 1-1 through 110 minutes of soccer.  Both goals came in the second half including the game-tying goal for Oneonta by junior Lana Vecchiarelli (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) in the 71st minute of the match.

The two teams have met 10 times in the tournament with Oneonta holding the advantage of five wins, four losses and one tie.  Geneseo has won the last two games and three of the last four in the series.  The two most recent matches came in the first round of the tournament in 2009 and 2011.  The two have met three previous times in the championship game with Oneonta holding a record of 2-0-1.  The last time the two teams met in the championship game was in 2003 with Oneonta taking the game 2-0.  2003 was also the year that Oneonta won its national championship.  The other two games were in 2002 (T, 1-1) and 2000 (Oneonta, 1-0).

Senior Karly DeSimone (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), who scored both goals in the victory against Brockport in the semifinals, is having the best season of her collegiate career offensively.  She leads the team and the SUNYAC in points (27).  She now has 10 goals and seven assists entering Saturday's match.  She is also now tied with sophomore Kayla Ceschini (Miller Place/Miller Place) for the team lead in game-winning goals (5).  Ceschini is having a second solid season for Oneonta and is second on the team with 13 points.

Sophomores Rori Stark (Brewster/Brewster) and Kelley Murphy (Albany/Colonie Central) have shared time in goal this fall.  Stark has logged 877 minutes while Murphy has played 678 minutes.  Stark has started nine games and has a goals against of 0.62 with four shutouts.  Murphy is 7-3 in 11 games including nine starts.  She was the winning keeper against Brockport and now has a 0.94 goals against while recording a pair of shutouts. 

Oneonta has outscored its opponents 34-14 while recording eight shutouts this season.  The Red Dragons also have a decided advantage in shots (234-178) and corner kicks (97-49).

Geneseo, which is making its 14th appearance in the SUNYAC Championship match this Saturday, owns a 22-15-5 record (.583 W%) in 42 all-time matches in the conference tournament.  Since moving to the current six-team format in 2002, the Knights have qualified for the tournament in 11 of 12 seasons, missing the tournament for the first time a season ago. The Knights, which own a record of 4-7-2 in SUNYAC championship matches, are making their first finals appearance since defeating Cortland, 2-1, to win the 2009 conference title.  Ironically, they won in Oneonta, as the semifinal and final was hosted by the highest seed overall.

Only one of Geneseo's seven losses has been by more than one goal. A 2-0 setback at Nazareth (Sept. 6) marked the Knights' only setback by more than one tally. Conversely, only two of the Knights seven victories have been by more than one goal – a 7-0 win over Lycoming (Sept. 14) and a 2-0 win over New Paltz (Oct. 5).

Saturday's winner will earn the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III soccer tournament, which begins on Nov. 16-17 with first and second round games.  The tournament bracket announcement will be made on Monday afternoon at 1:30pm.  This year's national championship game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7 at Blossom Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.