Devils advance to Round 3

The Fredonia women's lacrosse team used three goals apiece from Marissa Cussins (Corning, N.Y./Corning) and Audrey Yokopovich (Webster, N.Y./Webster Thomas) to claim a 10-5 win over Denison in the second round of the NCAA Division III Lacrosse Tournament hosted at Fredonia on Sunday.

The Blue Devils, who received a bye in Round 1, will advance to the third round of the tournament on Saturday, May 16 at 3 p.m. against Washington and Lee University at Franklin & Marshall College's Tylus Field in Lancaster, Pa.

Denison scored 33 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead. Fredonia tied it 25 seconds later when Cussins connected on her first goal.

After Denison re-took the lead at the 25-minute mark, Fredonia's Katie Miller (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) tied the game at 2-all, and Cussins upped the lead to 4-2 with a pair of scores.

Both teams would score twice before the half. The Devils' goals would come from the Kleine sisters -- Kristie and Katie (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia).

The second half was dominated by Fredonia. Yokopovich scored three consecutive goals to open the half and put Fredonia up 9-4. Katie Kleine would make it 10-4 with 9:58 left to play.

The Blue Devil defense did not allow the Big Red to score until the 2:08 mark when Claudia Rafi connected. To that point, the Fredonia defense did not allow a score for just over 40 minutes of play.

In addition to the three goals apiece by Cussins and Yokopovich, Katie Kleine had two goals and two assists. Nicole Burrows (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Baldwinsville) made 12 saves in goal while allowing five scores.

Reid Hirschey had two goals for Denison. Becca Jones made seven saves while giving up 10 goals.

Katie Kleine finished the day by upping her career total to 284 points, two shy of the Blue Devil standard set by head coach Amy Simon from 2009-2012. Cussins also moved to 85 points this season, one short of Katie Kleine's school record of 86 points in 2012.

Fredonia improves to 16-3 on the season. Denison, the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament champions, ends its season at 11-7.