The College at Brockport's women's lacrosse team is back in the NCAA Division III women's lacrosse tournament for the second straight year, the team learned late Sunday night.

 

With their postseason fate still undecided, the members of the Golden Eagles gathered around to eat pizza and watch the NCAA Division III selection show from a classroom inside Tuttle North Sunday night. When Brockport's name was announced shortly after 9:30 p.m., juniors Carly Motondo (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee), Karen Bianchi (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) and the rest of the Green and Gold erupted in a chorus of cheers.

 

Brockport (10-6) earned an at-large bid into the tournament, which begins Wednesday afternoon. The Golden Eagles will face nationally-ranked Hamilton College (17-1) in the first round at 5 pm Wednesday at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY.

 

“This is really exciting for all of us,” said Motondo, a junior attack who has scored 18 goals with three assists in 2011.

 

“We saw our name come across the screen, and then we all started screaming. It's great to get a chance to go back to the NCAA's and show everyone that Brockport is a talented lacrosse program.”

On Monday, Brockport was included in the Synapse Sports (formerly womenslacrosse.com) Division III weekly poll, coming in as the No. 20th-ranked squad in the country.

 

Brockport dropped a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship game Saturday to Cortland after avenging a loss to Buffalo State in the SUNYAC semifinal game Friday in Cortland. Brockport had dropped an 18-2 regular-season decision to the Bengals but responded with a 16-6 win in the semifinal matchup.

The Golden Eagles will be making their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament. Last year, the Green and Gold earned the program's first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament, and defeated Rowan University 16-9 in the first round before falling to Franklin and Marshall University in the second round.

 

If Brockport wins, the Golden Eagles will face the winner of Colby College (13-4) and Norwich University (10-2) in the regionals at 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

 

The Golden Eagles are led in scoring by sophomore Sarah Brown (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) who has 34 goals and 23 assists for a team-leading 57 points. Six other players have at least 20 points, including junior Dayna Piraino (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) with 23 goals and 26 assists; freshman Alyssa Scordo (Watertown, NY/South Jefferson) with 23 goals and eight assists; sophomore Kaila Maguire (Potsdam, NY/Potsdam) with 25 goals and four assists; sophomore Stephanie Toomey (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) with 24 goals and two assists; and Bianchi, with 23 goals and two assists.

 

Unlike last year, when All-American Melissa Hill was dominating the competition, Bianchi said a strength of this 2011 squad is its balanced scoring, as the Golden Eagles can rely on a number of players to come up with the clutch goal or assist.

 

“We don't have that one standout star on offense, we're all playing so well together and we know we have a lot of weapons who can score for us,” said Bianchi, who along with Brown and senior Amanda Massmann (Bohemia, NY/Connetquot) earned first-team All-SUNYAC honors.

 

“Even though we didn't win SUNYAC's, (getting an NCAA berth) shows that our conference gets a lot of respect because of the quality of lacrosse. It feels good to get recognized as a good program and now we're just going to play hard and play relaxed and we know that when we do that, we're able to play some good lacrosse.”

 

Defensively, Brockport limits opponents to less than 10 goals per game with seniors Massmann, Melissa Rosintoski (Black River, NY/Carthage) and Bridget Mulvena (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle). Fellow senior Jamie Kaminsky (Oakdale, NY/Sayville) has played every minute in goal this season with a 9.65 goals against average, a .416 save percentage and has four games with double-digit save totals.

 

Bianchi, Maguire and Massmann all earned spots on the All-SUNYAC tournament team.

 

Hamilton, which lost in the 2010 DIII national championship game, earned the Liberty League's automatic berth with a 17-8 win against Union College in the league championship on May 7. The Continentals, ranked third in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III poll, won the national championship in 2008 and are making their fifth straight appearance in the tournament.

 

Before Monday afternoon's practice on Bob Boozer Field at Eunice Kennedy Shriver Stadium, Brockport head coach Linda Michele told her team that Hamilton “didn't want to play us” during the regular season, thinking that “we weren't on their level.”

 

Those words resonated with the Green and Gold, especially Bianchi and Motondo, who said that the whole team is motivated to prove they belong with the country's best.

 

“It's a respect issue for us. No one expected us to make the NCAA field, and we want to prove that we're a competitive program that doesn't want to be taken lightly,” Motondo said.

 

“Even though we lost in the conference championship game, we still have a lot of momentum and confidence from the win over Buffalo State, and that confidence will definitely carry over with us into the NCAA tournament,” added Bianchi.

 

“We're always striving for excellence, but you have to play and beat the top teams to be considered the best of the best, and we know what we have to do to accomplish our goals.”

 

Hamilton and Brockport each had four similar opponents during the 2011 regular season: Ithaca College, the University of Rochester, St. Lawrence University and Cortland. Hamilton and Brockport each defeated Rochester and St. Lawrence, the Continentals and Golden Eagles each lost to Cortland (Brockport fell 10-5 and 14-6 while Hamilton lost 12-9). Hamilton defeated Ithaca College 13-7 while the Golden Eagles fell to the Bombers 10-6 in their season-opener.

 

The Continentals attack is led by Rachel Friedman, who scored 67 goals with 12 assists. Seven Continentals have 20-plus points, led by Friedman, Sarah Bray (40G, 38A), Libby Schultz (30G, 14A), Anne Graveley (25G, 8A), Katie D'Antonio (21G, 10A), Martha Plack (15G, 12A) and Ashley Allen (15G, 5A).

 

Hamilton has scored 10-plus goals in all but two of its games: a 12-9 loss to Cortland and a 9-7 win over St. Lawrence.