New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz remained undefeated Saturday after rolling to a 6-1-win Saturday over visiting St. John Fisher College.
 
The Hawks offense continued their progression in a well-rounded offensive onslaught. The hosts out-shot the Cardinals, 49-14 overall and had the advantage in shots on target, 39-11, along with generating 14 corners versus just two for St. John Fisher.
 
"Today the chemistry was just there," said SUNY New Paltz sophomore forward Rachel Tama. "We were working really hard all week, just moving on and off the ball, just working on our cuts, anticipating the pass and then really braking out on defense because in the past we were struggling with that, but we really capitalized on that today and we created a lot of opportunities in the circle. It really paid off."
 
The first goal came two minutes into the second quarter with Amanda Quenneville beating her defender endline before playing a dangerous ball back toward cage where it was met by Miranda Britton who received the pass and then buried her shot for the game's first goal. SUNY New Paltz went up 2-0 before the half, as Ayden Fleming scored her fourth of the season.
 
 
SUNY New Paltz was in full control in the second half and quickly added a third in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Tama found herself in front of cage, beat the goalie and laid in a shot heading into the net before a Cardinals defender got in front with her foot leading to a penalty stroke. Hannah Ackerman calmly walked up and fired a shot bottom left without a doubt in mind to push the Hawks lead to 3-0.  
Tama then put away back-to-back goals both off assists from Hannah Ackerman with the fourth score of the game coming off a corner generated by Ackerman in the third. Fleming then iced the win scoring her team-leading fifth goal of the season, placing her shot right through the legs of the Cardinals goalie for the score.
 
"Today we were really focusing on getting ahead of the ball and like I said, really anticipating those passes, and making sure there wasn't too big of gaps in between our lines," Tama said." It worked, because we were catching St. John Fisher on their heels, which was really good."
 
Gail Comiskey earned the win for SUNY New Paltz in 45 minutes of play with Madison Orisini coming in for relief and making a career-high five saves.
 
The Hawks are back in action Wednesday, hitting the road for their first home matchup against Skidmore at 4 p.m. before going up to Western New York to face University of Rochester.
 
"Last year was truly a learning experience," Tama said. "We spent all offseason and all preseason talking about what mindset we were going to be on this season, and we're just taking it practice by practice, game by game, we're not looking ahead anymore. It's, be where our feet are, where are we doing today, what we're going to accomplish and we're just going to go from there every day."

Post-Game Featuring Rachel Tama


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