New Paltz, NY —The State University of New York at New Paltz field hockey team made a statement Saturday.
 
The Hawks (9-2 overall, 3-0 SUNYAC) played well all of 2021 but a signature victory eluded them until Saturday afternoon when rival SUNY Cortland, ranked No. 16 in the country and undefeated prior to the first whistle against the Hawks, walked onto the field. SUNY New Paltz produced arguably its best outing of the season, limited the Red Dragons potent offense to their lowest scoring output all year and strutted away with a 4-2 victory to stay undefeated in the SUNYAC, while handing Cortland its first "L" on its previously unblemished record.
 
"I know this is how we can play and we've shown it numerous times," said Hawks coach Shanna Szablinski. "We're a really great team and I think this win is something that we really needed, so that the momentum continues to carry into the rest of our season, which isn't long. They did a great job. The seniors were poised and they knew it was really up to them to lead, and direct and demand today and they did a great job doing that."
 
After a scoreless first quarter, SUNY New Paltz put the first points on the board and never trailed the rest of the way. Off a penalty corner, Shannon Bernhardt was there to put in the rebound off the initial shot by Jessica Ascencao to give SUNY New Paltz a 1-0 advantage with more than 14 minutes remaining in the half.
 
 
The Hawks nearly added on three minutes later off another corner played in by Julia Cummings, but Elizabeth Pratt then goalie Megan McGuinness was there for a defensive save and another stop off shots by Hannah Ackerman and Ascencao to preserve the one goal difference. The Red Dragons finally cleared their zone and pushed the ball up the field following the sequence. SUNY New Paltz senior goalie Ryan Dowling came out big and made the save, but the Hawks couldn't get the ball out of their circle and ultimately Keirra Ettere put away the rebound to knot the score for Cortland with about 10 minutes left in the quarter.
 
SUNY New Paltz answered before halftime though to take another one-goal advantage into the break. The Hawks earned a penalty corner with about five minutes to go in the period and Cummings played in a ball to Asecencao at the top of the circle who fired a shot directly into the back of the cage for the score.
 
First-half stats were pretty even for both teams, the Red Dragons finished with 10 shots with SUNY New Paltz totaling 12, but the second half was dominated by the Hawks. They allowed Cortland just four shots the entire second half despite giving up eight penalty corners, Dowling and SUNY New Paltz's defense held firm and closed out on the Red Dragons' forwards, not allowing anything dangerous at goal. 
"I think what was important was defensively, we talked about slowing them down versus committing because when you have fast attackers that have great execution, we need to work on just decreasing their speed and getting the ball wide, so that went really well," Szablinski said.
 
One of Cortland's second-half penalty corners came just 30 seconds into the second half with the Red Dragons capitalizing. Ettere received the ball off the ensuing set play and reverse-sticked a lofted shot that found the far right corner for the goal to tie the score at two goals apiece.

SUNY New Paltz quickly regrouped, however, and took the game over from that point forward.
 
Cummings earned a penalty corner for her team and then played in the ensuing corner to Ascencao at the top of the circle who found Ackerman on the near side. Ackerman took a swing at goal and Cummings was there to tap in the score for her team that ended up as the essential game-winner.
   
"It was a little bit of a messy goal, off both me and Han and we both killed it and I'm super excited. It's great being a part of the score too," Cummings said. "We're super excited as you can tell. They were undefeated, but we kept them up in our attacking circle. We played excellent defense, possessed the ball and just came out with energy and kept it for the whole four quarters, and we're super excited."
 
Ackerman helped create the Hawks' next scoring opportunity, working hard on the press and winning the ball back for her team. She then moved the ball into the circle and earned a penalty corner, which she then put away. Cummings played in Ascencao who found Ackerman and the sophomore ripped a shot that beat Red Dragons goalie Megan McGuinness for the goal to add to the 4-2 advantage.
 
"I think this game everybody played really well," Szablinski said. "One of the things we talked about was really denying opportunities for a quick-transitioning team. Our press is really important and we worked on positioning, but shifting appropriately and when to go and when to stay and not jumping too soon, so that would keep our direct ball line sealed. We did a really good job of that."
 
Cortland earned three consecutive corners to end the third, but SUNY New Paltz's defense stayed firm. Courtney Kruzikas did well defensively for SUNY New Paltz coming out and limiting any space for an attempt on goal. At the start of the fourth, the Red Dragons continued to press and again earned three-straight corners to start the period, but could not capitalize. Kruzikas again played big with Bernhardt getting in and helping her team clear away from goal. The Hawks offense did the rest, possessing the ball and burning time off the clock in the corner to seal the 4-2 victory.
 
"Defensively, we were just focusing all week on forcing outside and keeping them out of our circle," Cummings said. "If they did enter our circle then we were going to tackle and double them, and I think we played really successful defense and we just shut them out."
 
SUNY New Paltz outplayed one of the top teams in the country Saturday. The Hawks out-shot the Red Dragons, 25-14, including 16-13 in chances on frame and although they allowed 13 corners, they kept Cortland to a season-low two goals. 
 
"The other thing we talked about with our attacking forwards was eliminating sooner and getting into the space and allowing ourselves to create numbers up and get opportunities in the circle. That really went well," Szablinski said. "They did a very good job with that. It was much better today. We were able to get around their defense, get opportunities, execute and our numbers were on. Poise inside our defensive circle, which was huge but also relentless in our attacking circle. Ryan came up big in this game. She had some amazing saves. She came out hard, took some risks and it was very beneficial."
 
Ackerman led her team with seven shots, four on goal, to finish with a goal and an assist in the win. Ascencao followed with five shots, four on goal, and also added a goal and an assist to go along with two defensive saves. Dowling finished the day with seven stops in a full 60 minutes of action, while McGuinness totaled 10 stops for Cortland.
 
The first-place Hawks have a short break before their next outing, as they face another top-25 team in the Ithaca Bombers Tuesday. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Ithaca, NY.
 
"It's just going to keep pushing us to do better," Cummings said. "We came out very confident today and now we're going to use this to push us to our next games. We have very big competition coming up, but it's just going to push us to do better and keep playing and win more."

Post-Game Interview with Julia Cummings

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