New Paltz, NY — Throughout a historic 2024 season for the State University of New York at New Paltz, its sights were set on one particular goal heading into the year: clinch a home playoff game for the first time in program history.
 
On Wednesday, the Hawks checked another box.
 
Although not the prettiest win of its record-setting 13 thus far, SUNY New Paltz (13-3 overall, 6-3 SUNYAC) held off a tough Oneonta team Wednesday afternoon on North Turf Field to solidify a top-four seeding within the SUNYAC after earning a 13-9 win. A loss by Oswego at the hands of the top seeded Cortland Red Dragons, coinciding with a win by Brockport over Buffalo State in the evening, clinched SUNY New Paltz the No. 3 seed in the SUNYAC Tournament — the highest ever.
 
"It's such a great feeling to see this program develop from my freshman year to now, being a senior and even going through this entire season, our goal from the beginning was to have a home playoff game," said Hawks senior captain Kaitlyn Shaw. "We've kept that in the back of our mind after every single win that we've had and we've kept pushing ourselves to make sure we get that. I think this game today proved it through our grit and hustle all over the field that we want it and we deserved it."
 
SUNY New Paltz has never earned higher than a fifth seed in the conference tournament and with it solidifying its fourth-straight trip to the playoffs, the 2024 campaign re-set a new bar as it will host the same Red Dragons team it faced Wednesday.
 
"Every year has been a battle with Oneonta," Shaw said. "They are a great team, but we knew this year we had the players and the skill level to beat them and be the better team. We came out here today strong. There are some things we need to work on if we see them again in the playoffs, but I think overall we out-hustled them and just wanted it more at the end of the day and it proved on all aspects of the field from defense to attack, and we came out with the win."
 
 
SUNY New Paltz essentially won the game with a dominant third quarter but battled back to start the first. The Red Dragons took the opening lead of the game straight off the first draw control, owning possession and scoring seconds later. Oneonta added on two minutes later with a second goal by Cassidy Moore. The Hawks won their first draw of the game and immediately answered as Shaw found Atwater for the score.
 
Coach Randy Vite called an early timeout to regroup her team with five minutes to go in the quarter and with possession on their offensive half, the Hawks ran their offensive set and found the back of the net with Mia Baldinger zipping a pass to a cutting Lexi Atwater for the game-tying goal.
 
Moore scored for the third time to open up the second, but Shaw made sure to answer for her team. Playing tight defense pressing out on the elbow, Shaw batted down a pass then scooped up the ground ball and immediately carried the other way. She was then the beneficiary on the offensive end, as Baldinger found Shaw for the goal to knot the score at 3-3.  
Chaos ensued with about seven minutes to play, as Lexi Atwater was forced to come out to deal with blood after getting taken down on a collision with two Red Dragon defenders. The Hawks were awarded a free position attempt with a few seconds added onto the shot clock. The attempt by Morgan Atwater went wide with SUNY New Paltz retaining possession. Atwater found the ball in her stick again and attempted another shot that was off the mark, but Ava Padilla was there to back up the play with three seconds left. Atwater took over, dodging and getting fouled in the eight to earn another free position attempt with a just one tick on the shot clock remaining. The sophomore had no choice but to rip a shot from the second hash, which found the back of the net for the go-ahead score, giving the Hawks their first lead of the day.
 
Oneonta tied the score one last time to end the half, as the game was knotted at fours.
 
The game turned in the third quarter, as the Hawks controlled the 15 minutes of action from start to finish. They out-shot the Red Dragons, 12-6 in the period, while picking up seven of the 10 draw controls in the quarter.
 
Shaw and Atwater earned back-to-back free positions, capitalizing on both to start the run with Lexi Atwater adding the third goal within the first three minutes off a great feed by Baldinger.
 
The momentum offensively ignited a fire on the defensive side as well with SUNY New Paltz playing lock down defense limiting Oneonta looks on cage. The Red Dragons found a look inside on a feed, but Gabriella Tommaso got her stick up to make the save high then got her team going the other way in transition, leading to a goal by Lexi Atwater with Ava Padilla finding the look in front to extend the score to 8-4 resulting in a timeout by the visitors.
 
Lexi Atwater won the ensuing draw control out of the break and Shaw scored seconds later to create a five-goal cushion with about 11 minutes to play in the period. Oneonta broke through the drought to end the 5-0 run following a win on the draw, but Kira Tucker answered with seven minutes left. Taking the 1-v-1 matchup up top, Tucker split dodged her defender and attacked the net, putting away her 10th of the year to re-establish the five-goal difference for her team.
 
The Red Dragons scored with five minutes left, but another win on the ensuing draw led to a Morgan Atwater goal and SUNY New Paltz leaned on the five-goal advantage the rest of the way.  
"We came out flying on all cylinders, but after halftime we just took a deep breath and relaxed a little and focused more on running down the clock, being patient on attack and I think it really worked," Shaw said. "We put away so many goals in the beginning of the third quarter. We had huge defensive stops. Gabby made great saves in goal, and I just think we were energized throughout that whole third quarter, because we knew we deserved this win."
 
Momentum stayed with the Hawks to open up the fourth, as Shaw and Baldinger gave their team their largest lead of the day at 13-6, but the offense stalled for the hosts.
 
The Red Dragons slowly crawled back into the game. They were awarded back-to-back free position opportunities and capitalized to get one back with just less than 10 minutes left. They then scored three minutes later, after a transition attempt was stuffed by Oneonta goalie Courtney Gallagher. Then following a timeout by Vite, SUNY New Paltz turned the ball over as Morgan Atwater was called on a charge as she tried getting through a wall of Red Dragon defenders. The change of possession proved vital as a potential two-goal swing, as Oneonta went down the field and scored to get within four with still three minutes left.
 
SUNY New Paltz hung on from there, however, eating as much clock on the offensive end as possible. A turnover on a bad pass by Baldinger trying to feed Lexi Atwater with still 40 seconds left on the shot clock, allowed the Red Dragons an extra possession on the offensive end. Luckily, they opted to pull the ball out which took more time off the clock and the shot they eventually did take was saved by Tommaso in the final minute to solidify the 13-9 win.
 
Baldinger (one goal, three assists), Morgan Atwater (four goals) and Shaw (four goals) led the way offensively with four points apiece. Atwater added a ground ball and a team-leading six draw controls, while Shaw finished with a ground ball, caused turnover and four draw control wins. Corozzo finished with a game-high five ground balls, while adding a team- and game-high three caused turnovers. Morgan Woolley and Berardi followed with two caused turnover each. Tommaso had a solid afternoon, finishing with seven saves in the win.
 
Although the regular season concludes, the run continues for the Hawks who will face No. 6 seeded Oneonta for a re-match Saturday in the quarterfinal round. The program has never won a postseason game, but in a season of firsts, they're determined to etch another goal on their board. A win pits the team against No. 2 SUNY Geneseo in the semifinals May 1.
 
"I have so much confidence in this team," Shaw said. "Through all the wins we've had this season this just proves that we compete from the first minute the whistle blows to the very last. I think no matter what team we face we can come out on top, because we have skilled players and so much trust in each other that we can get this win and get history for this program."

Post-Game Featuring Kaitlyn Shaw



***************
To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.