CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Plattsburgh State women's soccer team picked up a tie on the road against the Cortland Red Dragons, picking up a point in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) standings with a 1-1 final. Nora Fitzgerald (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) scored her third goal in her last four games to help Plattsburgh to the 1-1 result.

Fitzgerald scored in the 33^rd minute to open the game's scoring, as Avery Durgan (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Beekmantown) picked up her fourth assist of the year on the goal. Lauren Haley (LaGrange, N.Y./Arlington) made six saves in net to move to 4-3-4 on the year and move her GAA to 1.12 on the season.

The Cards move to 4-4-4 (2-1-3) with the tie and have nine points in league play, tying them in fourth place with Oswego who they carry the tiebreaker over. They next head to Buffalo State on Saturday, Oct. 14 for another league road match, with the first whistle set to blow at 1 p.m. Cortland moves 7-2-4 (3-0-3) and will have a road match with Brockport on Saturday, Oct. 14 next on their season schedule.

Plattsburgh was able to dig deep for the tie on Wednesday evening, as they were able to pick up the tie despite Cortland earning several more offensive opportunities. The Red Dragons put 25 shots up, with eight being on goal, and also earned 13 corners to the Cards' two.

In the first 11 minutes, the Cardinals had a strong start, putting up three shots as Samantha Rachon (Marcy, N.Y./Holland Patent) had two shots blocked. Shortly after, the Red Dragons went on an eight-minute stretch where they had five shots and five corners, with Haley making a save and the crossbar saving Plattsburgh on another.

Soon after, Fitzgerald was able to give the Cards the lead, with a 33rd-minute score from Durgan. Durgan was able to find the senior attacked deep in the box, where Fitzgerald scored off one touch for her fifth goal of the year.

Three minutes later, however, Cortland earned a corner kick and knotted the score up at one, as Kayla Valerioti bent in a corner for the equalizer. Little action occurred in the rest of the period, leading to a tied game at the break.

In the second half, the Red Dragons pushed out a persistent attack, attempting 15 shots, and putting five on goal, as Haley made five of her six saves in the second period. As the clock continued to work down to zero, the score remained tied as the Plattsburgh defense held strong to the several shots from the Cortland offense. The team was able to push a lot of shots off target with strong play, as 16 of their 25 total shots in the game were off target.

Over the final ten minutes, the Red Dragons turned up the aggressiveness, unleashing a relentless attack that saw three corners and five shots in the final minutes of the game. A shot from Bella Casucci finished the game, as her attempt went high late in the 89^th minute to conclude the hotly contested match.

For Cortland, Kristen Spendal made four saves to earn the tie, while Kayla Valerioti attempted six shots and put four on goal along with her 36th-minute score, pacing the Red Dragon offense.