A Quick Look
The SUNY Oneonta women's lacrosse team opened the 2019 campaign with an 11-9 setback to RPI Thursday afternoon.
 
The Inside Story
The Engineers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first half before Sophia Calabrese (Bethlehem/Bethlehem Central) put the Red Dragons on the board at the 17:51 mark.  After RPI increased its lead to 5-1, Kelsey Cohen (Baldwin/Baldwin) netted back-to-back goals to cut the deficit to 5-3. Sophia Calabrese (Bethlehem/Bethlehem Central) then added her second marker of the game to pull Oneonta within a goal.  
 
With 3:35 remaining in the first half, RPI's Lauren Guiry tallied her second goal of the game to up the Engineers lead to 6-4.  Victoria Varone (Commack/Commack) would pull the Red Dragons back within one when she tickled the twine on a pass from Lauren Bascelli (Williston Park/Herricks). The back and forth game continued in the final minute of the half when the two teams exchanged goals. With 13 seconds remaining in the first stanza, Deirdre Buckley (Merrick/Kellenberg Memorial) found the back of the net to make the score 7-6 at the break.

RPI would score a pair of goals to start the second half to take a 9-6 advantage. Kelsey Cohen (Baldwin/Baldwin) put Oneonta right back in the game with consecutive goals, cutting the deficit to 9-8. With 15:56 remaining in the game, Oneonta tied the game on Victoria Varone's (Commack/Commack) second goal of the game on a feed from Sophia Calabrese (Bethlehem/Bethlehem Central). Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Red Dragons would get as RPI scored the final two goals of the contest.
 
Just the Stats
Oneonta and RPI each had 27 shots apiece.  21 of Oneonta's shots were on were on net.
 
The Red Dragons were 15-for-18 on clear attempts while collecting 21 ground balls, six more than RPI.
 
What's Next
Oneonta will play its home opener on tomorrow at 3:00pm when they host the Farmingdale State Rams.