All five of The College at Brockport's spring sports teams will compete for State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) postseason championships, beginning on Wednesday when the men's lacrosse team makes its inaugural appearance in the tournament.
The Golden Eagle men (6-7 overall, 3-3 SUNYAC) sported a 3-7 record overall and had lost their first three SUNYAC games, and at that juncture, securing the program's first-ever SUNYAC berth seemed improbable. But then, a funny thing happened to the Golden Eagles: they started playing as a team, according to head coach
Ben Wineburg, who has coached the program since its rebirth in 2001.
The Golden Eagles earned the playoff appearance after rattling off three straight SUNYAC wins. Brockport defeated Plattsburgh 11-10, rallied from a six-goal deficit to beat Oneonta 14-13 and wrapped up the postseason berth with Saturday's 16-9 win over Oswego on Senior Day.
No. 4 seed Brockport will face top-seeded Cortland (13-2, 6-0 SUNYAC), which is ranked fifth in the country, at 4 p.m. at Cortland in one semifinal. No. 2 Potsdam (7-8, 4-2 SUNYAC) and No. 3 Geneseo (7-6, 4-2 SUNYAC) will square off in the other semifinal. The championship game is Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
“I told the guys I was proud of the overall team leadership that they showed over the last month, especially how, at one point we were 3-7,” Wineburg said of the leadership displayed by Brockport's upperclassmen, which includes nine seniors and six juniors.
“We rose to the challenge and that effort culminated in our game against Oswego, and that's something to be proud of. … We've become not only a solid team on the field but also a mentally well-prepared team. It's a whole team effort from our starters to our bench. We're a team-oriented, hard-working group of players who have worked really hard in our games and our practices. It's been a neat season from where we started to where we've come, regardless of what happens (against Cortland).”
Brockport's women's lacrosse team (9-5, 6-2 SUNYAC) earned the No. 3 seed in the upcoming SUNYAC Tournament, which runs Friday and Saturday in Cortland. The Golden Eagles will face Buffalo State (12-4, 7-1 SUNYAC) in one semifinal at 3 p.m. Friday, with host and top-seeded Cortland (16-1, 8-0) facing No. 4. Geneseo (11-3, 5-3) in the other semifinal at 12:30 p.m. Friday. The winners will square off for the SUNYAC championship at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cortland.
Cortland is the 12-time SUNYAC champion.
Buffalo State has won five straight games while Brockport is coming off a 21-8 rout of Oneonta during Saturday's Senior Day game. Junior
Dayna Piraino (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) scored four goals with four assists while sophomore
Stephanie Toomey (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) added a season-high five goals as Brockport had its highest scoring game of the year.
Brockport baseball (24-10 overall, 13-10 SUNYAC) earned the No. 2 seed in the double-elimination tournament and will face No. 3 Oneonta (20-15, 11-7 SUNYAC) in a first-round game at 10 a.m. Friday. If the Golden Eagles win, they'll face the winner of No. 1 Cortland (30-7, 16-2 SUNYAC) and No. 4 New Paltz (20-16, 9-9) at 10 a.m. Saturday. If Brockport loses, it goes into the consolation bracket, but can still play its way into the finals.
The double-elimination softball tournament starts Thursday, with the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles (22-13-1 overall, 8-9-1 SUNYAC) taking on top-seeded Cortland (32-3-1, 17-0-1) in the first game at 9 a.m. at Cortland. Brockport was the only team that did not lose to Cortland this year, as the Golden Eagles earned a 2-all tie against the Red Dragons on April 30.
The winner of the men's and women's lacrosse tournaments, as well as the baseball and softball tournaments, will earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Brockport's outdoor track and field team, which posted 14 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship qualifying times/efforts during Saturday's Roberts Wesleyan Invitational, will compete for SUNYAC titles during Saturday's conference championships. The SUNYAC championship meet runs Friday and Saturday at Geneseo.
For updated schedules and links to live stats and radio broadcast coverage for SUNYAC playoff games, be sure to check out
www.goBrockport.com.
