Quinnipiac clinches NEC Tournament berth in win over Sacred Heart
By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac field hockey team defeated Sacred Heart in its final regular season game on Friday, 5-2. The win secured a playoff spot for the Bobcats (11-7) as the team clinches the third overall seed in the tournament. Freshman Danielle Allan (Riverdale, N.J.) led the way for the Bobcats scoring three goals. Seniors Kim Cunniff (Walpole, Mass) and Megan McCreedy (White River, South Africa) also scored for the Bobcats.
Aware that a playoff spot was on the line, the Bobcats came out with a determined effort. Allan put the Bobcats on the board just over the third minute of the game, and the team never looked back.
Cunniff scored her 14th goal of the season at 12:02 in the first half off a pass from freshmen Amanda Danziger (Smithtown, N.Y.). The play came after a corner opportunity when it looked like Sacred Heart cleared the ball from the box. Quinnipiac quickly countered the attack, and Cunniff slipped a shot past goalkeeper Kim Stow into the cage to make it 2-0.
Sacred Heart was able to cut the lead in half with a goal from Sarah Bergman. The goal came as a result of a corner opportunity when Bergman beat senior Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) on a rebound of the initial shot.
Quinnipiac came out flying in the second half and were able to extend the lead with goals from McCreedy and Allan who put the Bobcats up 4-1 scoring just two minutes and 38 seconds apart. Senior Lauren Zimniski (Dallas, Pa) assisted on Allan’s second goal of the game.
Sacred Heart hung around in the second half, never giving up on the game. Lindsay Kasten scored at 46:35 to close the gap to 4-2. The goal was a result of a perfectly executed two-on-one play, as Leah Salindong broke into the box and slid a pass to Kasten who had a wide-open net for the goal.
Allan’s hat trick goal capped off a hard fought win for Quinnipiac, as after the goal was scored the feeling of victory was in the air. McCreedy had the lone assist on Allan’s goal as the Bobcats led 5-2, where the score would remain.
Allan was named the Griff’s Chicken Shack Player of the Game, and after the game, commented on the win.
“We wanted to win this for our seniors. This was their last game ever on this field and we won it for them.” When asked about upcoming NEC tournament, Allan said, “We want to take it game by game. We have to focus on Monmouth first, and then take it from there.”
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Megan McCreedy’s Record Setting Day Leads to Bobcats, 2-0 Win Over Bryant
By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer
Black Bears put Bobcats to sleep in overtime; win 3-2
By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac Field Hockey team defeated Bryant, 2-0, on Senior Day, in a Northeast Conference match-up.
Megan McCreedy (White River, South Africa) broke the single season and career assist records when she set up Kim Cunniff (Walpole, Mass.) in the first half of the game. McCreedy’s record-breaking assist was her 13th of the season and 25th of her career.
Cunniff’s goal and assist in the game put her name into the Quinnipiac record books as well. Cunniff became just the third player in program history to score 30 points in a single season. Her 13th goal is also the most in a season since 2001, when Julie Smith scored 15, and tied for second most in Quinnipiac history.
The game was pretty well matched in the early stages of play, as no team was able to establish a consistent attack on offense. Danielle Allan (Riverdale, N.J.) opened the scoring for the Bobcats at 19:00 of the first half. Cunniff took a shot off a corner opportunity that was turned aside by Bryant goalkeeper Jennifer Gullotti, but Allan was able to pick up the rebound and slip a shot passed Gullotti into the cage.
Cunniff extended the lead to 2-0, when she converted off a corner opportunity at 31:18 of the first half. Maria Malonoski (Phoenixville, PA) inserted the ball into the circle for the opportunity, McCreedy corralled the pass and delivered a pass to Cunniff who set up at the top of the circle was able to fire a shot passed Gullotti.
Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) stopped all of Bryant’s shots on goal for her second shutout of the season.
The Bobcats wrap up their regular season schedule on Friday when they host Sacred Heart, in their final NEC match-up at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey and Lacrosse Turf Complex in Hamden, Conn.
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Black Bears put Bobcats to sleep in overtime; win 3-2
By Giovanni Mio, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac Bobcats Field Hockey team lost to nationally ranked Maine in overtime 3-2 in Hamden.
The Bobcats (6-3) came into this game after winning at Columbia 3-1 on Wednesday. The Maine Black Bears came into the game ranked 14th in the national polls. The first half was all about defense, as neither team scored a goal. Throughout the first half, Quinnipiac focused on defense, only taking three shots. Maine, on the other hand kept on attacking the Bobcats, ending the half with twelve shots and eight penalty corners. Maine also dominated Quinnipiac on scoring opportunities. Bobcats’ senior goalie Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) had 10 saves.
“We’ve been struggling and have been working on our defense,” said Bobcats head coach Becca Main Kohli. “Our number one individual goal today was defense.”
Quinnipiac started off the second half with a surprise attack. Two minutes in the Bobcats missed a golden opportunity to score the first goal. The Bobcats took advantage of their next opportunity when senior Kaitlyn Notarianni (Clarks Summit, Pa.) gave the Bobcats a 1-0 with 26 minutes to go.
The Maine Black Bears wouldn’t give up; with a fierce attack the Black Bears continued to get corners and force penalties from the Bobcats. Ten minutes after Notarianni’s goal, Maine senior Stephanie Gardiner deflected a shot off Nicole Lewis to tie the game 1-1. Not even four minutes after Gardiners goal, Black Bears sophomore Alexa Binnendijk scored, giving Maine a 2-1 lead with 13 minutes left in the game.
The game seemed like it was over, but the Bobcats senior Ashley Gradwell scored the tying goal with two minutes left. At the end of regulation, the game was tied, forcing overtime.
“Like they say, ‘Defense wins games’ and I think you kinda saw that today to get into overtime,” said Kohli.
Entering overtime, Maine had outshot Quinnipiac 22-6. Quinnipiac came up strong playing good defense, but Black Bears senior Kelly Newton scored the game-winning goal off a rebound save by Nicole Lewis.
“Honestly, I’d never expect to have 20 saves in my life,” said Lewis, “We just have to take this one step at a time… I think we’re going to bring this momentum into the next game and really use our firepower to get ahead early.”
The Bobcats will travel to Easton, Pa. next weekend to face Lafayette on Sunday October 2nd at 2:00pm.
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Last Second Heroics Lead Bobcats Past Harvard
By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac field hockey team defeated Harvard, 4-3, in a thrilling non-conference game Sunday at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey & Lacrosse Turf Complex in Hamden, CT.
The game was full of back and forth opportunities for both teams, strong play on both offensive and defensive ends, and solid goalkeeping. The game wasn’t decided until the final seconds of regulation as the teams were very evenly matched.
Kim Cunniff (Walpole, Mass) got the Bobcats on the board just 4:44 into the contest, converting on a corner opportunity after being set up by Megan McCreedy (White River, South Africa) and Kaitlyn Notarianni (Clarks Summit, PA). McCreedy was then later set up by Cunniff in the 24th minute of play, when she flipped a shot into the cage to put the Bobcats up 2-0. Harvard kept its composure and was able to tie the game at 2-2 before the half. Kyleigh Keating (Windham, NH) and Noell Painter (Los Gatos, Calif.) scored just 29 seconds apart to completely change the complexion of the game before halftime, setting up an exciting finish to the game.
The Bobcats came out and completely shutdown the Crimson by playing suffocating defense for the first 25 minutes of the second half, as Harvard was barely able to put any offensive pressure on Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, NY). Jess Rusin (Garwood, NJ) gave the Bobcats the lead, 3-2, after a great individual effort. She got possession of the ball and patiently outwaited the sprawling Cynthia Tassopoulos (Dallas, Texas). and flipped it up in to the goal. Harvard was finally able to break through Quinnipiac’s defense as Keating scored her second goal of the game off a pass from Katelin Wahl (Chester, NH) to knot the game up at 3-3.
Harvard threatened to take the lead in the final three minutes of the game, as they were awarded with two corner opportunities; but a key save on the first corner, and a strong defensive play to force the ball wide in the second one kept the game tied. The game seemed to be heading for overtime when Maria Malonoski (Phoenixville, Pa) hit Amanda Danziger (Smithtown, NY) with a perfect pass up field. Danziger was behind the defense and with stood the challenge from Tassopoulos to flip a shot around the goalkeeper and into the cage with only 5 seconds remaining in the game. Nobody saw Danziger in front of the cage besides Malonoski, and the execution of the play could not have been any better. The final 5 seconds ticked off the clock with the Bobcats celebrating and Harvard in disbelief.
The win improved the Bobcats record 4-0 at home and 5-2 overall as they start a tough stretch with three of they’re next four games coming on the road. Quinnipiac’s next game is on Wednesday when it travels to Columbia for a non-conference match-up at 6:30 p.m. The next Bobcats home game is next Sunday, September 25th when they host Maine at 1 p.m. in Hamden, CT.
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Kim Cunniff Leads Bobcats over Lehigh (9-14-11)
By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac field hockey team defeated Lehigh, 3-2 in a non-conference matchup Wednesday at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey & Lacrosse Turf Complex.
The game consisted of strong efforts from both teams, highlighted by strong defense and solid goaltending.
Kim Cunniff (Walpole, Mass.) opened the scoring for the Bobcats in the 10th minute of play with a heavy shot on goal; converting a corner opportunity. Lehigh’s Caitlin Donnelly tied the game in the 21st minutes of play. Cunniff was then set up by Ashley Gradwell (Fogelsville, Penn.) and Megan McCreedy (White River, South Africa) off another corner opportunity with under 2 minutes to go in the half to send the Bobcats into halftime with a 2-1 lead.
Lehigh came out strong in the second half and needed key saves by goalkeeper Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) to maintain the lead. Lehigh finally tied the game at 2-2, when leading scorer Abbie Tilton put a backhand chip shot into the top right corner of the net as she was falling down to beat Lewis.
After Lehigh tied the game, the Bobcats defense shut down any more attempts by the Mountain Hawks, while turning up the pressure on offense. The Bobcats had several chances to take the lead in the late stages of the game, including a penalty stroke by Cunniff, which was turned aside by Lehigh goalkeeper Sierra Segear.
The Bobcats had 4 corners in the last 3 minutes of the game, waiting until the final one to convert. The Bobcats were awarded a corner opportunity as time expired and Cunniff was set up by McCreedy and Kaitlyn Notarianni (Clarks Summit, Penn.) to give the Bobcats a 3-2 victory.
Cunniff’s hat trick gives her the team lead with six goals on the season.
The Bobcats improved to 4-2 on the season with the victory. Quinnipiac returns to action this Sunday when it hosts Harvard at 2 p.m. at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey & Lacrosse Turf Complex in Hamden, Connecticut.
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QBSN Athlete of the Week: Nicole Lewis
By Nick Sczerbinski, QBSN Staff Writer
19 saves is not a number often seen in the sport of field hockey. In fact, it is much more common in the other version played on ice. However, Quinnipiac University senior Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) reached that total in last week’s epic 3-2 stroke-off win versus interstate rival Yale.
Lewis played the full 100 minutes through both overtime periods accumulating 19 saves on 21 shots as well as 2 saves in the stroke-off to help the Bobcats to the win.
The 19 save performance was a career best for the starting goalkeeper that is looking to lead the Bobcats to an NEC title.
“Nicole Lewis was absolutely phenomenal,” said head coach Becca Main Kohli. “I haven’t seen goalkeeping like that from her since the NEC semifinals last year so it was really great to see that from her.”
Earlier in the week, Lewis made 6 saves on 12 shots in the Bobcats 6-1 loss to nationally ranked Boston College.
She has a 2.92 GAA and a .737 save percentage in 240 minutes of play so far this season earning a 2-1 record.
Lewis and the Bobcats will look to continue their winning ways this weekend as they travel to Colgate and Penn State.
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Field Hockey Opens Season With Historic 6-2 Win Over Holy Cross
By Brian Farrell, QBSN Staff Writer
Earlier today the Quinnipiac women’s field hockey team opened the regular season for QU sports at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey and Lacrosse Turf Complex with a solid 6-2 win against the Holy Cross Crusaders. The win marks the first time in Division I school history that QU has scored six goals in a game.
In addition to team history, freshman Danielle Allan made Quinnipiac D-I history today after she scored two goals and tallied one assist. Allan set the record for most points in a Bobcat debut with five, and is the first QU player to score twice in her first game.
Quinnipiac’s Nicole Lewis made three saves in the win, while the Crusaders’ Kat Matchett tallied five saves in the loss.
With Hurricane Irene just days away from hitting the QU campus, the weather was hot and sunny for the home opener. “So far in the preseason I have been happy with our girl’s physical condition,” said QU coach Becca Kohli. “It was difficult today because there just aren’t many hot and humid games in the season, but our girls handled it well.”
Kohli continued by saying that there were some parts of the game that they needed work on. “Our defense had a few glitches today, but there is no such thing as a perfect field hockey game.”
Holy Cross, a team who couldn’t win a game last year, did a good job of taking advantage of those defensive glitches when QU committed them. Both of the Crusaders’ goals came off of penalty corners.
After the Bobcats took a 2-0 lead following goals by senior Kaitlyn Notarianni and the first of two for Allan, the Crusaders cut the lead in half at the 31:43 marker of the 1st half.
Then just 2:35 later the Bobcats took their two goal lead back. Allan took control of the ball on the right side of the field and saw an opening she couldn’t pass up. As she deked between two Crusaders, she was able to get Matchett to bite. As soon as Matchett made a break out of the net to cut down Allan’s angle, Allan bumped away from the net and around the Holy Cross goaltender to tap in her second goal of the day.
“I was pleased with the way our offense worked today. We were able to spread our attack and more importantly get our high forwards into the play,” said Kohli.
Allan led the Bobcats in scoring with two goals and one assist. She could have had more if it was not for an outstanding stop from Matchett. As Allan cut across the offensive zone from right to left, Matchett was forced to dive across the goal mouth with her stick completely extended to stop the shot. After being burned the first time, Matchett chose to wait for Allan to make the move.
Five minutes into the second half Holy Cross moved closer again cutting QU’s lead to one. The score remained that way for nine minutes until the Bobcats put away the Crusaders with three straight goals. Within that nine minute period, and for an overall theme in the game, QU was able to control the clock.
Coach Kohli noted that she wanted to do the same tomorrow against Lehigh. “We want more clock maintenance. Lehigh is a different team than what we saw today, but we still want to do more of what we did today.”
“There aren’t many times in field hockey that you play back to back days,” Kohli said. “We start the season with back to back games, and we have mentioned that the only other time we will see that is if we play in the NEC championship in late October or early November. Our goal is to start the season with back to back games and end the season the same way.”
Due to the impending storm, Sunday’s game against Lehigh has been moved to tomorrow, Saturday August 27th. Tune in right back here to listen to a live broadcast of tomorrow’s game at 3:30 and every home game for the remainder of the season.
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