New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz lacrosse team is looking for its second straight conference victory Saturday against visiting Fredonia State (0-12 overall, 0-7 SUNYAC) in its final home contest of the 2018 season.

The Hawks (5-7, 1-5) are coming off its first SUNYAC victory of the season Tuesday against visiting SUNY Potsdam. Last season SUNY New Paltz needed extra time to defeat the Bears, but this time around controlled the tempo for most of the game and came out of an early two-goal deficit to earn a convincing, 10-6, victory.

"Beating Potsdam definitely gave us a lot of confidence," said Hawks senior Caitlyn Morris. "Last year was an OT win so we were really fired up this year to go into that game and get another win out of it. It was a really big first conference win for us this year."

The win gave SUNY New Paltz its fifth win of 2018, which matched last season's win total with two more games to go. If the Hawks defeat the Blue Devils Saturday, they would surpass last year's conference win mark as well.

"The second conference victory would be really big for us," Morris said. "Especially as my last game as a senior it would be huge to get two conference wins in a row and finish the season on a high."

Morris, and fellow seniors Colleen Jones and Kayla Massena will be honored in a short ceremony prior to game time. Last season, the trio was a part of a 15-8 loss to Fredonia State and is aiming to turn that score around come Saturday.

The Blue Devils enter the game winless on the season, and have lost their last four games to a combined score of 8-77, including 6-56 in its last three against conference rivals, Oswego State, The College at Brockport and SUNY Cortland.

Offensively, Fredonia State has scored a total of 83 goals this season and average about seven per game. Casey Villagomez leads the Blue Devils with 25 goals and two assists, while Alli Coon follows with 18 goals and four assists.

Nicole Burrows has played the majority of minutes in net for the Blue Devils and has accumulated 116 saves in eight starts.

As for the Hawks, they enter Saturday's game averaging about 10 goals for and 11 against. Nicole Sheintul has played every minute in-between the pipes and has amassed 129 saves for a .478 save percentage. Tara Bovich leads the team offensively with 34 points, followed by Amy Hofer (27), Rachael Purtell (18), Massena (15), Morris (13) and Emily Puciloski (10).

"I'm really excited that tomorrow is our last home game," Morris said. "It is a really big game for us. Fredonia is always really good competition. It is always a close game, so we've been really focused the past couple days at practice and we're excited to get on the field tomorrow."

SUNY New Paltz is set to face Fredonia State at 1 p.m. on the North Turf Field. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, highlights, videos, photos and more.