The Fredonia women's lacrosse team couldn't put the finishing touches on a chance to take down one of the top teams in NCAA Division III lacrosse.
The No. 6 Cortland Red Dragons, winners of the SUNYAC for the past 16 years, defeated the Blue Devils on March 28, 14-10.
Early goals by Audrey Yokopovich (Webster, N.Y./Webster Thomas) and Katie Kleine (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) tied the game early-on 2-2. After a three-goal run by the Red Dragons, Emily Polizzi (Rushville, N.Y./Marcus Whitman) netted two in a row to pull the Blue Devils within one.
Cortland's Hannah Elmer scored one of her four goals just before halftime to put Cortland up 6-4 going into the break.
The Red Dragons began to pull away in the second half. After a highlight invididual effort from Kleine to net Fredonia's seventh goal, Cortland would score three in a row to go up 12-7. Yokopovich and Polizzi would each tally one more, but it wouldn't be enough to pull off the upset.
Along with her three goals, Kleine was credited with three ground balls, three caused turnovers, and two assists.
The result today is a large improvement on the 2014 regular season when Fredonia fell to Cortland, 14-2.
The Blue Devils will take to the road again on March 31 to face their second SUNYAC opponent, Brockport, at 4 p.m.
