The stage is set. The MAAC Championship women’s final tips off at 4:30 p.m. today. The Quinnipiac Bobcats will get their rematch against the Marist Red Foxes.
Last year in the MAAC Championship game, Marist beat Quinnipiac to win their ninth consecutive MAAC Championship. The four-point differential is the smallest margin of victory the Red Foxes won by out of those nine championships.
By the end of the first half, it was looking like Marist’s run was going to come to an end. But even though Quinnipiac was up 35-24, they were in trouble.
Quinnipiac star senior point guard, Gillian “Boo” Abshire has started all 132 games of her four-year career for the Bobcats, and she has only fouled out three times. But she was in foul trouble during last year’s championship. In the first minute of the second half she picked up her third. Head coach Tricia Fabbri decided to leave her in, and she picked up her fourth foul with 16 minutes to play.
Abshire left the game for 10 minutes. When she left, Quinnipiac led 39-32. When she re-entered, her team only led by a score of 58-57. The 25-2 run that the Bobcats had in the first half was negated.
Even when Abshire re-entered the game, Quinnipiac had already run out of gas. With 4:36 left to play, Marist regained the lead after trailing for the last 27 minutes. The Bobcats were unable to come back. They fell 70-66 in the championship game, in their first year in the MAAC.
Quinnipiac has been lighting up the MAAC since last March. It is 30-3 this year with a perfect 22-0 in-conference record. The five senior starters, the “Old Rush,” has led this team to where they are now, and the younger second unit, “Gold Rush,” is closely following their footsteps.
“We [the starters] all have confidence in them [the second unit],” senior Samantha Guastella said. “We just need them to have confidence in themselves because they’re all great players. And we’re going to need them to be able to produce to get this victory.”
The Bobcats have a system. And their system has worked for them all season. And even though the “Gold Rush” has been struggling to score this tournament, Fabbri sees no reason to change up what they have been doing.
“I think we’re in a routine,” Fabbri said. “And we’re comfortable. We’re confident.”
Throughout the MAAC Championship, Fabbri and her team have expressed their confidence in their own abilities, and in their system. And despite the championship atmosphere, they are not nervous.
“I’m finally feeling like this is where we’ve wanted to be our entire year, and this is what we’ve worked for,” Guastella said. “I’m really excited. We’re all walking around with big smiles on our faces, ready to play the 40 minutes that we’ve wanted to for a whole year now.”
Quinnipiac truly believes they are going to win this game. But so does Marist. Both teams are playing for a streak. Quinnipiac has won their last 20 games. They have not lost for three months.
Quinnipiac is on a regular season winning streak, but Marist has won nine straight conference championships. But the Red Foxes also have confidence, and like the Bobcats, don’t feel any pressure in holding on to their streak. Sydney Coffey said that they would like to continue the tradition of winning, but it’s not all about the tradition.
“I think really we’re playing for us, not for a streak,” Marist center Tori Jarosz said. “It would be nice to continue a tradition like Sydney said, but we want to play for us. We want to come out with passion and heart, and show that we’re peaking at the right time of the year.”
There is a unique vibe for games such as this one. Both of these teams have something to prove, and both of these teams have something to lose. The winner of today’s game receives an automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Quinnipiac and Marist’s seasons come down to this, and every player and coach is prepared to put everything they have on the line in order to win.
