Oneonta, NY — The Sage Colleges' women's soccer team travelled to Hartwick College on Saturday for an Empire 8 match-up with their post-season lives in the balance. Sage forced overtime, but the Hawks came out with a 1-0 win to dash the Gators' hopes of a second straight Empire 8 tournament appearance. Hartwick improves to 11-3-3 with a 4-0-3 record in the conference, while the Gators' record for the year is 7-11 overall with a 2-5 effort in the league.
After playing 90 minutes of scoreless soccer action, the game went to the overtime period, where Hartwick's Maggie Rogers scored the game-winner at the 93:51 mark off a corner and a scramble in front of the goal.
For the game, Sage's rookie keeper Kallan Shertzer (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) made two saves with one goal allowed. In her first year in net for the Gators, she went 7-11 with 142 saves and a .840 saves percentage. She added five shutouts with a 1.48 goals against average along the way.
The contest marked the final appearance for three Sage women's soccer players, their 2019 seniors, Kristin Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville), Giovanna Fichera (Cornwall, NY/Cornwall Central), and Maegan Villa (Marlboro, NY/Washingtonville).
During their time at Sage they helped two of their teams earn post-season bids, having earned a selection to the 2016 Skyline Conference tournament and advancing to the semifinals, a first for Sage. Last year's team earned the program's first Empire 8 tournament berth.
Along the way, Villa played in 73 career games, which is second all-time to Joleen Marfone's (2015-2018) 74 appearances. Villa started 67 games, which is tied for third most, while adding 32 career points on 10 goals with 12 assists and had four game-winning goals. Her 12 assists is tied for 10th best at Sage.
Fichera started 59 of 68 career games at Sage with 17 total points on 7 goals with 3 assists. Her 68 appearances is tied for 10th best at Sage.
Silk played in 65 soccer games at Sage with one game-winning goal and 23 career points. She added 10 goals with 3 assists and finished 16th all-time in appearances at Sage.
