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Photo: Samantha Bashaw

The sun glistens on the Quinnipiac Field Hockey Turf Complex on an unseasonably hot autumn day. Pregame hip-hop music blares out from the sound system, the aroma of a food truck’s fried cuisine permeates the air, and the fans settle into their seats.        

This is the type of atmosphere that Associate Athletic Director Ken Sweeten had in mind when the athletic department pushed for a new stadium complex four years ago. While prepping game notes in the press box, Sweeten can’t help but crack a smile as he looks out and sees his dream realized, fully fleshed out into a beautiful new 500-seat stadium.

“That first game when we went up to the field and opened all the windows and everything, we kind of sat there for a minute and it was just a jaw-dropping moment,” Sweeten recited. “For people to come in and look at what we have at Quinnipiac now, it’s far different than what it was before. We are excited for what we have now. It’s a new toy, and we are still playing with our new toy.”

Fresh off of Quinnipiac Athletics’ shelf, the Quinnipiac Field Hockey Turf Complex replaces the old model, the Quinnipiac Lacrosse Field, which opened in 2005. The complex includes hallmarks that show off new models of the old field, including a brand new turf field that replaces the carpet-laden, artificial turf from before. The portable seating from before lays in the shadows of the hundreds of installed bleacher seats that now sit parallel to the two fields. What used to be a single press booth turned into a press box, with multiple conjoining rooms for the purposes of broadcasting, creating stats and photography.  

“Before, it was a field and some bleachers with some additional features, and now it’s a stadium,” Sweeten said.

But the field hockey stadium is not the only new structure on the northeastern end of Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel campus. Just a short walk away stands the new Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Turf Complex, which seats up to 1,500 fans. It features four locker rooms, a training room, a laundry room  and another expansive press box, including roof access for camera operators.

The players will experience a difference on the field, too. The new turf surface is a first for Quinnipiac sports, and the school made sure that its student-athletes wouldn’t play on anything less than the best.  

“The turf itself is state of the art,” Sweeten explained. “It’s the newest and safest surface material that you can get.”

With Quinnipiac fall sports winning more than ever before, Sweeten and the athletic department saw it fit to reward the teams with a palace akin to that of the TD Bank Sports Center, which houses the university’s hockey and basketball teams, as well as acrobatics and tumbling. The goal was to bring the ambience of “The Bank” into fall sports.

“Anytime you build something this new ­– you’ve seen it with TD Bank ­­– it’s a rallying point,” Sweeten said. “You build that atmosphere and everybody starts noticing that the crowd’s in the game, and [the opposition will] come and play and they’re going to say, ‘Wow, this is a tough place to play! The crowd’s so crazy and loud.’ And now you have that opportunity to pull everybody together and it’s really special.”

It was only a matter of time before the big-time events came to Quinnipiac’s new masterpiece. The 2018 Big East Field Hockey Tournament will be played at Quinnipiac’s stadium, a testament to how advanced its facilities are.

“I look forward to those big events,” Sweeten revealed. “The Big East [officials] show up on campus and walk through the facility, and by the end of their tour they’re like, ‘Ok, you have the best facility in the country and we should definitely jump in here whenever we can.’ That a conference with that type of notoriety wants to be involved with Quinnipiac, I think that’s really cool.”

Sweeten hopes that the new field hockey and soccer stadiums will foster even more growth for Quinnipiac fall sports.

“It’s just a matter of building traditions and building what Quinnipiac is. Where we’ve come with our facilities over the last 10 years is absolutely incredible, and it’s starting to put us on the map.”