Danbury, CT – The Sage Colleges' women's soccer team garnered the No. 3 seed in the 2014 Eastern College Athletic Conference Metro Division III Women's Soccer Tournament. The Gators bring a record of 11-5-2 into the tournament and will travel to face No. 6 seeded Dolphins of the College of Staten Island in a first-round match-up on November 12 at 2 p.m. at CSI's Soccer Complex. The Gators will be the home team on CSI's field on Wednesday. The tournament will continue on Saturday on Sunday, with semifinal and final action at a site to be determined.
In other quarterfinal action, Richard Stockton College earned the field's No. 1 seed, and will host No. 8 Elmira College. No. 2 Rutgers-Newark will be hosting No. 7 Lehman College, while No. 4 Stevens Institute of Technology will play host to No. 5 Kean University.
The Dolphins finished the season with a respectable 9-8-2 overall mark, falling in the CUNYAC title game, 1-0, to Brooklyn College on Saturday. The Gators earned the No. 3 seed by virtue of their 11-5-2 record, having fallen in the Skyline Conference Semifinal round a week ago. It will be the first meeting between the two schools in program history.
The 2014 Gators are under the direction of Andrew Gamarra, who led his charges to a 6-2 record in Skyline play this fall and was named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year. A 2010 graduate of Carthage College, Gamarra and the 2014 Gators are poised to make his first campaign a very memorable one. Sage earned the No. 3 seed in the Skyline Conference tournament as well this fall and hosted the program's first Skyline Conference post-season contest on November 1, beating SUNY Old Westbury, 5-1. The Gators earned the win and moved into the semifinals for just the second time in Sage's tenure in the Skyline Conference, but fell to MSMC in the semifinals. The 11-win campaign for Gamarra and his Gators also ties the mark for most wins in a season, a feat first achieved in 2003, when then Russell Sage College went 11-6-2.
Sophomore midfielder Savannah Mason (Wynantskill, NY/Averill Park), who earned Skyline Conference First-Team acclaim this fall leads the Gators with her 34 points on 15 goals and four assists, while connecting for a team-best four game-winning goals on the campaign. Earlier this season, she broke the program's single-game scoring mark with her four goals in the team's 4-3 win over SUNY-Old Westbury on October 4, a feat that was later matched by a teammate this season.
Senior goalkeeper Teagan Waddingham (Coeymans Hollow, NY/Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk) has 312 career saves, which is No. 4 on the Sage career record book. She has also played in 48 games and is now No. 2 all-time. She has 4,295 career minutes (No. 3). Named to the Skyline Conference Second Team, she is 10-5-2 this fall in net with a 1.97 GAA and a .752 saves percentage in net.
Rookie defender Jenna Retell (Schaghticoke, NY/Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) was also placed on the Skyline Conference Second Team this fall and has helped to anchor the team's defense as Sage has outscored their opponents 58-34. Retell has nine points on the year on three goals and three assists. She has also been clutch for the Gators with a pair of penalty kick goals and has helped the team allow just 1.83 goals per game in 18 contests this fall
Junior co-captain Nicole Maher (Glen Cover, NY/Saint Dominic) added a two assists in the win over OW and continues her run on the Gator record book. Maher now has 24 points on 9 goals and 6 assists and is now tied for the No. 3 spot in career points with 67. She is tied with Michaela McBride (67 points, 2001-2003), as she has 27 goals with 13 assists.
Sophomore forward Taylor Lynch (Woodstock, NY/Saugerties) is next in the scoring race with her 19 points on 9 goals and 1 assist. Sophomore Cassidy Bruen (Baldwinsville, NY/Baldwinsville) and junior Shelby Ruppenthal (Albany, NY/Guilderland) each have 17 points as Bruen has 6 goals and 5 assists and Ruppenthal has 5 goals with a team-high 7 assists. Ruppenthal has handed out 11 assists on her career and now has 23 points (6g, 11a).
For CSI, 2014 will mark the fifth time the Dolphins have earned an ECAC postseason berth, having first advanced in 2007. The tourney has not been kind, as the Dolphins have not been able to advance past the quarterfinal round. The team fell to St. Joseph's College (LI) a year ago in ECAC quarterfinal action, 2-1.