Oneonta, NY – The Women's lacrosse team took a quick trip down West Street this afternoon to take on the Red Dragons of SUNY Oneonta. Hartwick jumped out early but Oneonta came back to eventually take the hard-fought 15-11 win. The Hawks record moves to 3-2 on the year and the Red Dragons improved to 2-4.

The Hawks' tone-setting first quarter was started by Kristen Vacarreli who scored the first goal of the game off of a clear from Kelsey Mahoney. Even with setting the tone early to their cross-town rivals, the Hawks knew the Red Dragons wouldn't fly away easily. As expected the Red Dragons didn't back down and it was Tessa Hughes who tied the game at 1 with 12:10 left to play in the first. After back-to-back Oneonta mistakes, Claudia Pollaro and Gabrielle Stringer whizzed their free position goals into the back of the net making the score 3-1 and forcing an Oneonta timeout. Emily Schaub jumped into the scoring mix when she found the back of the net on a man-up opportunity extending the Hawk's lead to 3. The Red Dragons soon cut the Hawk's lead back to only 2 when Marissa Evans found the net, but once again Hartwick capitalized on Oneonta's mistakes and Katrina Marten scored on a free position shot, pushing the lead back to 3 and making it 5-2. 

After their commanding first quarter, the Hawks stayed the course, and Stringer once again found the back of the net from a free position making the score 6-2 with 13:30 to play in the half. A back and forth quarter was spent goalless for ten minutes ended in favor of the Red Dragons when they scored three times in the final three minutes to bring the score to 6-5 Hartwick going into the half.

Oneonta finally took their first lead of the day when they rattled off three more consecutive goals to start the third quarter. It was Schaub who slowed the Red Dragon's run with her second goal of the day with 5:19 to play in the third to cut the lead to 7-8. Emily Madigan settled the score at 8 when she hit the twine on a man-up opportunity. However, just 32 seconds later Oneonta answered right back to regain the lead. The Hawks once again found themselves facing a hot Oneonta offense with 1:20 left to play in the third quarter when the Red Dragons went on another 3 goal attack.

With the scoreboard reading fifteen minutes left to play and the score sitting at 12-8 in favor of their opponent, the Hawks walked onto the field determined to regain control of the game. A quick goal from the Red Dragons didn't stop the fight in the Hawks, as they answered with two of their own. Vaccarelli and Madigan both found their second of the day off free positions that brought the game to 13-9, and then 13-10. Schaub found the goal tally for her third time today when she capitalized on a free position cutting the game to 2 with 4:58 to play. However, Oneonta finished the game with two more of their own winning the hard-fought game 15-11.

Emily Schaub led the way for the Hawks scoring 3 goals, while Gabrielle Stringer, Kristen Vaccarelli and Emily Madigan all followed right behind with 2 of their own.  Claudia Pollaro and Katrina Marten each had 1.  Samantha Miller stopped 8 in her 60 minutes of play.

The Hawks return to play this Saturday at home when they take on Eastern Connecticut State at 1 pm in Wright Stadium.