Cardinals finish all-time best year

BY COLLIN BOLEBRUCH

Sports Editor

Cardinals women’s lacrosse has been ripping pages out of its own record book this season. Week in and week out, Head Coach Kelly Wall and her players have been setting seasonand career-best individual marks. Last week, despite being eliminated from the postseason, Plattsburgh’s program set its most impressive record yet. After a 10-8 win over the Fredonia Blue Devils April 22 and a 19-9 win over the Potsdam Bears April 26, the 2023 Cardinals own the mark for most wins in a single season with seven.

Since its 2019 inception, Plattsburgh’s women’s lacrosse program has completed just three full seasons due to the havoc COVID-19 wreaked on sports. The team played just 12 games between the 2020 and 2021 seasons, less than the 15 games it has played this season alone.

Wall joined the team’s inaugural season as an assistant coach and remained in the role through the 2020 season. She returned to Cardinal Country in 2022 to take the helm as head coach. Wall has now guided the Cardinals to its two best seasons, earning five wins in 2022 and seven in 2023.

The March 25 win over the Buffalo State Bengals ce- ments on adjacent fields behind Memorial Hall. The men’s club hosted the Cardinals alumni squad, Hamilton College, Paul Smith’s College and Canisius College. The women faced a field including the alumni team, SUNY Potsdam, Paul Smith’s College and Hamilton College. The alumni mented Wall as the program’s all-time leader in wins by a coach.

“I haven’t had a ton of coaching experience. I’ve had like a year and a half and then I jumped into the head coaching role,” Wall said. “It feels good to be in the place I am because I feel like I’ve worked very hard for it.”

This season, midfielder Lindsay Guzzetta has firmly placed herself in the conversation for the team’s greatest player ever. Guzzetta joined the

RESULTS: UPCOMING:

Saturday, April 22: BASE 5-3 win, 2-8 loss @ Oswego* WLAX 10-8 win @ Fredonia* MLAX 7-12 loss @ Brockport* SOFT 4-3, 16-0 team came out on top on both the men’s and women’s sides. The men’s team played the alumni team twice during the day and lost to the former ruggers in the championship game. The final game was intense, but the former ruggers came out with bragging rights. The games were in good fun, and in the end, the squads appreciated the time they spent together.

“It’s a memorial tournament.

It’s keeping the memory of the culture of rugby and the values we have here in Plattsburgh,” men’s alumnus Luke Ovadias said. “It’s just family in the end of the day.”

The women’s team finished the day in second place. It started the day playing the alumni squad at 10 a.m., and lost 0-5. It got its first win of the day at noon, when it beat Hamilton 22-5.

During the match against Hamilton, Plattsburgh rookie Olivia Doud scored her first career try. She’d never played rugby before this season, saying her decision to join the team was the best she’s ever made. The moment signified her hard work paying off. Doud scored another before the day was over.

“That’s the first time that my whole team was there playing at the same time, since we’ve only taken smaller groups to other tournaments,” Doud said. “It was super fun to have the whole team there to witness it and having the support of everyone around me. Obviously, there’s a lot of pride that comes with scoring.”

TNT > 7 team in 2020, playing in just four games before the season was shut down by COVID. Now, after four years with the team, Guzzetta ends her Plattsburgh career atop the all- time goals scored list with 82 and draw control list with 111.

“It’s a really good feeling and I’m happy I went out like that,” Guzzetta said. “I’m pleased with everything that I’ve done throughout the seasons here and I’m just proud of myself and proud of these girls.”