By Thomas Albanese, QBSN Staff Writer
The Quinnipiac’s field hockey team defeated the Saints of Siena College by a final score of 5-0. With the win, the Bobcats move to 11-6 on the season (4-2 NEC), and they continued to hold on to the last playoff spot, staying ahead of Bryant who also defeated Sacred Heart today by a score of 4-2. The loss continued the winless season for Siena as they fell to 0-14 on the year (0-6 NEC).
Both teams played strong defense for the first 13 minutes of the game. The Bobcats missed an opportunity early when it looked like the team scored, but it would eventually be overturned because of a Bobcat penalty.
Then moments later, Quinnipiac’s Danielle Allan (Riverdale, N.J.) took a quick shot past Siena’s Beth Meyers, giving her an unassisted goal along with a 1-0 lead. Allan earned her fourth goal of the season.
Quinnipiac took a 2-0 lead into halftime thanks to a goal off the stick of Christa Romano (Madison, N.J.) with the assist from Lauren Zimniski (Dallas, Pa.). It was Romano’s third goal of the year to go along with five assists while Zimniski earned her seventh assist for the Bobcats in her senior year.
Quinnipiac got on the board twice in the first ten minutes of the second half. Both goals were scored by Cate Colucci and assisted by Jennalise Taylor (Yardley, Pa.). This gave the Bobcats a 4-0 lead over Siena. Colucci (Gloucester, R.I.) now has four goals this season while playing well for the team in the past several games after making adjustments to her play as the team played against NEC opponents.
“One of my main things that I have changed is keeping my stick down in the circle, and Becca and Cheryl have been pointing out to me that. As soon as I see Jennalise’s back swing coming, I cut across the front of the net and get my stick on the ground, and that’s how it happened today,” Colucci said.
Taylor was not done for the Bobcats as she got her third straight assist on a goal by Ashleigh Allan, giving the Bobcats the 5-0 lead that they would hold on to for the rest of the game. Taylor is now tied for the team-lead with Ziminski in assists with seven on the year, and she helped Allan to score her second career goal as a Bobcat.
Quinnipiac held the momentum for the entire game, beating Siena in shots 13-3 and earning eight penalty corners over Siena’s three. Nicole Lewis (East Amherst, N.Y.) had two saves. She did not earn her fourth shutout as she came out late in the game, but both her and Megan Conaboy (Clarks Summit, Pa.) helped the Bobcats to win their fourth shutout of the season.
Head Coach Becca Main was pleased with her team’s efforts and she’s proud that her team is finally playing on field turf again after their last game playing on astro-turf.
“There is a joy coming back from astro-turf to field turf, and we had a hard week of practice, causing some players to get tired. We focused a lot on going back to our corners from the previous game and the team did a fantastic job executing on our new package,” Main said.
Quinnipiac will look to clinch a spot in this year’s NEC Tournament with its final game of the regular season, as it travels to Smithfield, R.I. to take on the Bryant University Bulldogs this Sunday. The action begins at 1 p.m.
