PITTSFORD, N.Y. – On the strength of a 6-1 scoring run that spanned most of the third quarter and bled into the fourth, the No. 1-seeded St. John Fisher women's lacrosse team downed No. 2-seeded SUNY Geneseo 12-10 in the Empire 8 Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon at Growney Stadium.
The Cardinals, 15-4 overall, extended their reign of the Empire 8 with the victory, capturing their 14th consecutive conference title to earn an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division III Tournament. They have won 76 consecutive games against E8 teams (regular season and postseason) and 28 consecutive games in the conference tournament.
SUNY Geneseo ended its season 11-8 overall and lost to St. John Fisher in the Empire 8 Championship game for the second year in a row.
The Empire 8 named St. John Fisher's Maddie Lowney its Tournament MVP. The senior defender caused six turnovers, recovered six ground balls and controlled four draws in the championship game.
Junior attacker Ellie Leisen led the Cardinals on the offensive end with five points on three goals and two assists. Senior attacker Dharma Makarowsky scored three goals and tallied an assist for four points, while fellow senior attacker Megan McGrath had three points on two goals and an assist. Junior attacker Chelsea Lopata found the back of the net twice.
Lila Warner led Geneseo with four total points, tallying a goal and three assists. Natalie Long scored a team-high three goals.
How It Happened
Lopata and Makarowsky each scored in the first five minutes as the Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Warner got Geneseo on the board at the 7:33 mark, but Makarowsky put the Cardinals back in front by two goals about two minutes later with her second tally of the afternoon.
The Knights snatched the game's momentum after that and rode that wave for the remainder of the first half.
Danyele Emler and Grace Reyna scored in the final two minutes of the first quarter to make it 3-3, and after Leisen opened the second-quarter scoring to put the Cardinals back in front briefly, the Knights ripped off three unanswered goals. Emma McGuigan made it 4-4 off an assist from Reyna before Long and Rosemary Mahoney buried shots to put Geneseo ahead by two, 6-4. St. John Fisher got back on the board before the half ended, cutting its deficit to one when sophomore attacker Athena Lazina scored after receiving a feed from McGrath.
Sparked by strong defense, the Cardinals found their groove in the third quarter and delivered what proved to be the decisive run, which began with goals from Lopata and Leisen to make it 7-6. Geneseo tied the score on a strike from Long at the 11:09 mark before Fisher started creating separation. Makarowsky made it 8-7 with her third goal of the day, and McGrath scored twice in less than a minute, both times unassisted, to give the Cardinals a three-goal lead at 10-7.
The Cardinals forced Geneseo into eight turnovers in the third quarter, directly causing seven of them. Lowney recorded three of her six caused turnovers in the frame.
Leisen netted her third goal of the day early in the fourth quarter to give the Cardinals their largest advantage of the contest, 11-7. Geneseo cut Fisher's lead to two on goals from Long and Katie Rajkowski but never got closer than that.
Senior midfielder Kaley Griffin effectively sealed the game with her first and only goal of the day, which gave the Cardinals a 12-9 lead with about five minutes left.
Rajkowski added Geneseo's final tally, meaningless in the end, with 2:46 remaining.
Game Notes
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The Cardinals have now won 16 Empire 8 titles overall.
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With the victory, the Cardinals matched the Ithaca women's cross country team's conference record for consecutive Empire 8 championships. The Bombers won 14 E8 titles in a row from 2003-16.
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The Cardinals claimed their first Empire 8 title under Marykate Edmunds, who was Geneseo's head coach from 2022-25. Edmunds, a 2014 Fisher graduate, helped spark the Cardinals' run of Empire 8 dominance as a player in the early 2010s, as she was part of a senior class that captured conference titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
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The Cardinals extended their winning streak at Growney Stadium to 24 games, the longest home winning streak in the country.
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The Cardinals improved to 14-6 all-time against Geneseo. Fisher is 2-0 against Geneseo in E8 championship games.
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Lowney matched her season high with six caused turnovers and pushed her season total to 63. Over two games in the E8 Tournament, she caused 10 turnovers to go with 10 ground ball recoveries and eight draw controls.
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Lowney has caused four turnovers or more in nine of the Cardinals' 19 games this season.
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Senior defender/midfielder Paige Miller matched her career high with five ground ball recoveries.
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Junior defender Leah Hilton caused three turnovers and controlled a career-high seven draws.
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Leisen recorded her 11th game this season with five or more points.
Up Next
The Cardinals will learn their first-round opponent and host site for the 2026 NCAA Division III Tournament on Monday.
