GENESEO, NY – The RIT women's lacrosse began the 2016 season in fine fashion, defeating No. 16 SUNY Geneseo (1-1) 7-6 on Saturday afternoon. It is RIT's second win all-time over Geneseo, and the first since 2010. Sage Sarkis (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) scored with two seconds to play in regulation to give the Tigers the win.

With 17 seconds to play in regulation and the scored tied 6-6. Geneseo scored to take the lead. however, after a stick check, the goal was disallowed and the score remained tied.

The Tigers won the ensuing draw. Sarkis drove to the cage, was fouled, and earned a free position attempt. With two seconds to play in regulation, Sarkis scored her third goal of the game to give the Tigers a dramatic win.

"We worked very hard on defense all week long and Elizabeth (Hughes) was huge in goal for us," said RIT head coach Jeff McGuigan. "We really worked on finishing regardless of the score all pre-season, and it paid off today. We got a couple of breaks, but I'm proud of how we kept fighting the whole game."

Sarkis, RIT's leading scorer in each of the last two seasons, paced RIT with four points on three goals and an assist. Emily Livecchi (Rochester, NY/Our Lady of Mercy) added three goals, while Corrina Mandell (Corning, NY/Corning East) scored. Nicole Bingo (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) added an assist for the Tigers who fired 18 shots.

Elizabeth Hughes (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South) was excellent in net for the Tigers, making a career-high 25 saves, just four off an 18-year old school record. Her 25 saves are the most in a game by a RIT goaltender since Kelsey Evans stopped 27 at Fredonia State on April 19, 2006.

Shots were 45-18 in favor of Geneseo, who came into Saturday ranked No. 16 in the current IWLCA Division III poll. Geneseo held a slight 12-11 ground ball edge, while the Tigers won seven draws to eight for the Knights. Geneseo went 1-for-12 on free position attempts, while the Tigers were 3-for-5.

Hannah Millich led Geneseo with two goals, while Erin Down added a goal and an assist. Claudia Coleates took the loss in net for the Knights, making four saves.

Millich and Down opened the scoring for Geneseo in the first half. Millich scored from Down at 25:43, and Down gave the Knights a 2-0 lead on her goal at 24:08.

Mandell got RIT on the board with her unassisted goal at 21:16 of the first half, cutting the Geneseo lead in half at 2-1.

After a Kathleen DePillo goal made it 3-1 Geneseo, Sarkis converted a free position attempt at the 17:12 mark, making it 3-2 Geneseo. Erin Cregan and Liz Felix scored consecutive goals for the Knights midway through the half, increasing the Geneseo lead to 5-2.

RIT rallied with goals from Livecchi and Sarkis to close out the half, cutting the Geneseo lead to 5-4 at halftime.

Livecchi kept the momentum going for RIT in the second half, opening the scoring off an assist from Bingo at 15:24, tying the score at 5-5. Livecchi, the 2015 Liberty League Rookie of the Year, gave RIT its first lead of the game on her third goal of the game at 14:30.

Millich tied the score at 6-6 with 54 seconds to play in regulation off an assist from Madison Maher before the dramatics over the final 20 seconds.

RIT returns to action on Wednesday, March 9 when they host SUNY Brockport at 4 p.m. on RIT's Turf Field.