05/17/2011
Three SUNY Cortland athletic squads, all winners of their respective State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournaments, are making their way through regional and national tournament action over the next two weeks. The campus champions are SUNY Cortland’s women’s and men’s lacrosse teams, its softball team and its baseball team.
The women’s lacrosse team, riding a 19-game winning streak under Head Coach Kathy Taylor, will head to the Div. III national semifinals for the second time in program history. The nationally fourth-ranked Red Dragons will meet seventh-ranked Gettysburg on Saturday, May 21, in an 8 p.m. tilt at Adelphi University.
Led by junior midfielder Lindsay Abbott, the SUNYAC Women’s Lacrosse Player of the Year, and six other All-SUNYAC student-athletes, Cortland has won 21 games this season for the the highest wins total in program history. Abbott recently became the school’s all-time scoring leader and its first career 300-point scorer.
The women’s lacrosse team will seek its first national championship berth in program history Saturday. Read more on the team’s historic season and its trip to the “final four” on its team page at the College’s athletics website.
Cortland’s softball team, ranked eighth in the nation, will travel to the NCAA Division III World Series in Salem, Va. for the third time in four years. With a 40-3-1 record and the third-most wins in program history, coach Julie Lenhart’s Red Dragons will meet nationally top-ranked Linfield College of Oregon in the tournament’s opening game on Friday, May 20, at 11 a.m.
Two players, senior second baseman Donnalyn Cross and junior pitcher Lyndsay Rowell, earned top honors in the SUNYAC while two others joined them on the All-SUNYAC first team. Cross, the program’s all-time leader in hits, triples and stolen bases, won the SUNYAC Softball Player of the Year honor for the third straight season. Rowell, with a 24-2 record and a 0.65 ERA, was named SUNYAC Softball Pitcher of the Year.
Stay up-to-date with the squad’s trip to the eight-team World Series on its team page at the College’s athletics website.
On the baseball diamond, Cortland will make its 19th straight NCAA Tournament appearance on the heels of another SUNYAC Tournament title; the 29th in program history. Head Coach Joe Brown’s Red Dragons, ranked eighth nationally, are 33-8 on the season and have nine members on the All-SUNYAC baseball squad.
The team will host an eight-team NCAA Baseball Regional at Falcon Park in Auburn, N.Y. The top-seeded Red Dragons will face Mitchell College of Connecticut at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 18.
For more on the team’s march towards a second straight Div. III World Series, visit its team page on the College’s athletics website.
On the track, several athletes from the SUNY Cortland men’s and women’s track and field teams posted NCAA provisional and ECAC qualifying times at the SUNYAC league championship meets. The women’s team captured its first conference title since 2007 and its 14th overall in the process.
Members of both squads, led by Head Coach Steve Patrick, will travel to the ECAC Div. III Outdoor Championships on Thursday, May 19 and to the NCAA Div. III Outdoor Championships on Thursday, May 26.
For the results of both meets, visit the men’s and women’s team pages on the College’s athletics website.