For Quinnipiac, the celebration of its seniors started before the puck dropped Saturday afternoon and continued as the final horn sounded, with the Bobcats defeating the Union Dutchwomen 1-0 among 600 fans and family members at the High Point Solutions Arena.
“I’m really proud of our team today,” head coach Cassandra Turner said following the win. “They had a ton of guts during the entire game.”
The win was exceptionally special for senior Sydney Rossman, who set the program record for career shutouts with her second straight shutout of the weekends, bringing her career total to 26.
Personally it’s huge. Obviously it’s cool to have milestones here in this program, especially in your senior year,” Rossman said about breaking the shoutout record. “But it’s more of a team award. I only got nine shots today, so that’s a team-defense thing and I think a shutout record isn’t just my record, it’s a team record.”
On a day Quinnipiac honored the skaters leaving the team at the end of the season, it was a freshman who got the scoring started for the Bobcats with her first career goal.
Melissa Samoskevich won a face-off in the offensive zone, playing the puck back to Emma Greco. The senior skated to the right of Union goaltender Amelia Murray and shot one on net. Murray made the pad save, but freshman Abby Cleary was on the doorstep where she corralled the Greco shot and found the back of the net on a rebound opportunity, giving Quinnipiac the early 1-0 lead.
“It’s obviously great to the first one off my back,” Cleary said of her first career goal. “But it was really nice to do it for the seniors and get that win going into playoffs.”
The day started with Quinnipiac honoring its seven seniors on its’ annual senior day. Meghan Turner, Emma Woods, Taryn Baumgardt, Danielle Marmer, Mika Nervick, Rossman, and Greco, were all honored along with their families before puck drop, highlighting their successes in their careers.
“We talk often about how valuable it is in terms of our experience here and trying to leave that jersey in a better place than where it was when they came,” Turner said. “We’re going to really miss this group of seniors.”
The Class of 2017 will go down as one of Quinnipiac’s most successful classes. The six skaters have combined for 89 goals and 144 assists for 233 points in total over their four years at Quinnipiac.
Along with setting the program record in career shutouts, Rossman is currently on pace to break the program’s record for goals-against average and save percentage after setting the program record in shutouts.
“Syd is a competitor,” Turner said about her goaltender. “We have had goalie excellence in our program and she has continued on that tradition. It’s been really neat to watch her grow over her four years.”
The group has seen tremendous success in their time donning the blue and gold, eclipsing 100 wins in their four seasons, along with helping Quinnipiac reach the NCAA tournament in 2014-15. The class also helped the Bobcats hoist their first ECAC Hockey Championship in the program’s history.
“The thing that we always say is that we want seniors to get better right up to their final practice, final game of their senior year,” Turner said.
Quinnipiac will have a chance to get better next weekend as they enter postseason play next weekend when they travel down to Princeton to start a three-game ECAC playoff series with the Tigers.
