Great Danes Get Their Day After Decade of Championship Game Losses

The Albany Great Danes couldn’t help themselves in the waning moments of Sunday’s America East championship game win over Binghamton.

“We all broke into tears the last 10 seconds of the game,” said senior midfielder Sarah Falk, who scored the game-winner with 2:50 left. “Coach was like, ‘Hold it together. The game isn’t over.”

When it was, the celebration spilled out onto the field. Those were happy tears for the first time in over a decade. After finishing runner-up every title game since 2012 — eight-straight times against Stony Brook and last year in an upset loss to Vermont — the Great Danes were conference champions.

“We were taking it game by game and step by step,” head coach Katie Thomson said. “We knew if we kept working hard, our opportunities would come.”

Thomson had been there for Albany’s 2011 and 2012 title runs before taking the head coaching job at Wagner. She returned to Albany when her old boss, John Battaglino, stepped down in 2018. That was in the middle of Stony Brook’s eight-year run atop the America East — the Seawolves had turned into a national power. But Albany had its share of successes, earning an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament in 2017.

“I always believed in the program and the opportunity to compete for that championship and play in the NCAAs,” she said.

The next few years would test that belief. Stony Brook won by lopsided margins in 2018 (20-8), 2019 (21-7) and 2021 (16-9). The Great Danes’ only America East regular-season loss since 2013 had been in games against Stony Brook.

“It can be hard sometimes,” Thomson said. “You wonder and question, but we were always staying the course and staying optimistic, knowing it’s all part of the journey and process to get to where we want to be.”

For Thomson, that meant leaning into the people. Assistant coaches come and go, but Thomson’s staff has remained intact. Leah Gallagher and Taylor Frink, an Albany alum who helped the Great Danes to their first title in 2011, have been a part of Thomson’s staff since the start of her tenure.

“A really important piece to our culture here is support, connection and being together,” Thomson said. “[If I started to question things], I’d really go back to that and why I do this: It’s to build those relationships, help guide and mentor. Knowing that if all those pieces are in place, the wins and championship are a bonus.”

That culture attracted Falk, who Thompson calls “all heart and speed.”

“The thing that really drew me to Albany in the first place was just the team atmosphere,” Falk said. “I fell in love with the teammates and coaches here. The coaching staff is unbelievable. It’s like having three best friends by your side.”

Falk didn’t come to finish second, but that’s what happened in 2021, her first full season, against Stony Brook. Last year, the Seawolves were banned from the postseason pending a transition to the Colonial Athletic Conference. The Great Danes got to host the tournament after finishing second in the standings. They seemed primed to break through.

They didn’t, falling by one to first-time conference champion Vermont.

“Last year was tough,” Falk said. “We had worked so hard, and it wasn’t what we expected. As bad as it was and as heartbreaking as it was, it made us better this year ... it proved this year there was no other option. We needed that win.”

The Great Danes didn’t stew. They dialed in.

“It taught us a lot and refocused us on how we needed to approach our season,” Thomson said. “We focused more on the process this year, taking it one game at a time and not making games bigger than they are. It’s just a lacrosse game … if we just focus on our same routines, we always believed these things would happen.”

But it was a trip that pulled Albany out of its time zone that Falk points to as the season’s turning point. After starting the season 3-3, the Great Danes pushed defending Pac-12 champion Stanford in a 21-20 loss. Three days later, they downed UC Davis by two.

The scores may not have popped to the outside — and the Great Danes lost to UConn in their first game back on the East Coast on March 15 — but the connections were there. They rebounded with a win over Vermont to open America East play.

“When we were in California, we bonded and got so close,” Falk said. “It was a turning point. We were like, ‘We can do this.’”

Albany ran the table in conference play and had no problem with New Hampshire in a 20-10 semifinal win. It was on to the America East title game — again. With 1:09 left in the third quarter, Bryar Hogg scored on a free position to put Albany up 11-7, but Binghamton went on a four-goal spurt, tying it at 11 early in the fourth quarter on an Olivia Muscolino goal.

Was it happening — again? Absolutely not.

“There was never any doubt,” Thomson said. “We were focused. They did score and get on a run, but we settled back in, and we were able to make some big stops, win some big draws and make some big plays on the offensive end.”

One of those plays came from Falk on the ride with 2:50 to play and the score knotted at 13. She caused a turnover, scooped the ground ball and scored the game’s final goal.

“Everyone was locked off on all of their players,” Falk said. “Our attackers made a huge play. It caused the turnover. I was lucky it was me with the ground ball and goal. It was the heart, hustle and ride.”

The moments that followed were all heart, too. The early tears kept flowing as they piled on the field and went over to the stands to greet the families and friends who had picked them up after falling short all those years.

“It made it so much sweeter because of everything we had gone through … the celebration showed the heart and connection we have,” Falk said.

Albany didn’t have to sweat it out on Selection Sunday this year. The Danes are dancing — and they’ll first tango with Virginia on Friday in Denver. It’s a tough draw, but Thomson again is putting faith in her people — in Falk, in a defense that pushes the pace in transition and in Katie Pascale, the America East Midfielder of the Year. Thomson calls her a “game-changer.”

“She makes magic happen with the ball, whether she is finding the open player or putting the ball away,” Thomson says.

The America East is no stranger to dynasties. Boston U won six in a row from 2005-10 before being dethroned by Albany and departing for the Patriot League. You know about newly minted CAA champion Stony Brook. Are the Great Danes the next big dynasty?

“We can’t control that right now,” Thomson said. “We can only control where we are right now and what we can do to work towards that.”

For now, that’s Virginia. But Falk won’t be hanging up her jersey for good this May.

“I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else than my family here. I plan on coming back,” Falk said.

And she’s coming back to win — again.

“I feel like this is just the beginning of what we can do,” Falk said. “It’s exciting to just prove ourselves, especially after everything we have been through. I’m so excited to see where this takes us.”