Women’s soccer to begin playoff journey Saturday

Jake Ziegler

Photo: Emma Robertson
Photo: Emma Robertson

The No. 4 seed Quinnipiac women’s soccer will embark on their MAAC playoff run with a quarterfinal matchup on their home turf against No. 5 seed Canisius Golden Griffins at 2 p.m. this Saturday.While the Bobcats concluded their regular season with three unanswered goals in a 3-1 victory over Saint Peter’s, the Golden Griffins ended their regular season with a 1-0 shutout win over Siena.

The Bobcats finished the regular season with a 10-6-1 overall record, 6-4 in MAAC play and 4-2-1 in out of conference play. Quinnipiac is also the only MAAC women’s squad that went undefeated at home this season going, 8-0 with victories in three out of conference match-ups and five MAAC contests. The Bobcats scored an average of 1.94 goals per game while just giving up 1.35 goals per game. Quinnipiac is considered one of the most physical teams in the MAAC as they lead in yellow card issues with 21. However, they appear to be disciplined after the initial yellow card as no red cards were necessary during the regular season.

Sophomore forward Nadya Gill has been an offensive machine this season, as she’s tied for the team lead in points with senior Jess Fontaine, who has 19. Gill leads the team with three game-winning goals, 54 shots and goals scored with eight. Fontaine lead the Quinnipiac squad with nine assists as she finished her final regular season with fourteen points. Other point contributors include freshman Ally Grunstein who has scored 12 points, sophomore Al Pelletier with seven points, sophomore Madison Borowiec tallying four points.

Freshman Olivia Myszewski handled the majority of the goalkeeping for the Bobcats throughout this season as she played a total of 1013:44 in 12 games, allowing 13 goals against finishing with a 1.15 GAA. She accumulated 50 saves with a .794 save percentage, with an overall 6-4 record with shutouts. Behind Myszewski is sophomore Devan Malcolm, who played 412:08 minutes in six games averaging a 1.31 GAA. Malcolm tallied 17 saves for a .739 save percentage and finished 3-2 with two shutouts of her own.

Meanwhile, Canisius went .500 with an 8-8 overall record going 6-4 within MAAC play and 2-4 in out of conference play. They went 5-3 on their home turf while going 3-5 on the road, with two of those games in overtime over Fairfield 2-1 and St. Peter’s 1-0. Collectively the Griffins have averaged 1.25 goals for per game while allowing 1.50 goals against per game.

Canisius has less than half of the yellow cards Quinnipiac has been issued with 10 along with 162 total penalty calls on the season. The Golden Griffins however trail their opponents this season in four different statistical categories; with 10.9 shots per game versus opponents’ 13.2, total assists with 16 versus opponents’ 23 and total corner kicks with 65 compared to opponent’s 69.

Freshman Getta Dry has stepped into the lead scoring role for the Griffins as she’s tallied eight goals, four of which have been game-winners. She also has 20 points and 34 shots on the season which is by far the most amongst the team in all categories. Dry also took two-thirds of the penalty kicks awarded for Canisius, but only converted on one. Senior Sabrina Fitzgerald tallied 3 goals and an assist on the season, while junior Shawna Adams respectively earned two goals and an assist with classmate Maddie Good recording 4 assists on 19 shots.

Freshman Alana Rossi was between the pipes throughout the majority of the season for the Golden Griffins, starting in 16 games totaling 1,313:50 of playing time. She allowed 23 goals finishing with a 1.58 GAA and ended the season with a .716 save percentage, an 8-8 overall record and five shutouts.

Quinnipiac and Canisius squared off earlier this season on Senior Day, Oct. 8 in Hamden where the Bobcats blanked the Golden Griffins 3-0 with goals from Pelletier, Gill and Borowiec along with two assists from Fontaine. While the Bobcats look to duplicate last meeting’s result, the Golden Griffins have other plans in mind. The winner of this matchup will advance to the semifinals either against Siena or Monmouth, depending on the other quarterfinal matchup winner between Rider and Marist.