No one could deny the excitement in Burt Kahn Court on Saturday. The stands had a healthy amount of blue and yellow in ready to scream Quinnipiac’s praises. It was the Bobcats’ first home game of the season which coincidently fell on parents weekend so there wasn’t a shortage of Bobcat support.

“It felt great, the whole gym was filled, and it was a lot of chants,” Aryanah Diaz said. “A lot of fans our way, so it felt really good to be in a circle of family here.”

However, the Bobcats’ priorities were geared more to the pressing task at hand. Coming into the home conference match without a win was the only thing on the Bobcats’ mind. After four close sets, Quinnipiac was able to obtain its first conference victory of the year, 3-1.

The opening set was filled with energy for the home team. They ripped off a 9-3 run to open up and looked as if they were primed to pile on all afternoon, until the Iona head coach called a timeout, attempting to bandage the bleeding. After the preventative timeout, the rest of the set took on a seesaw style of action that materialized itself in much of the other sets this afternoon. It wasn’t until a slew of huge kills by sophomore Lydia Jones and sophomore Maggie Baker on a cluster of great passes by the freshman Diaz.

No team could get a huge advantage over another in the second. The score was either tied or saw Quinnipiac trail by two points or less. Even with the Bobcats trailing for the majority of the set, everyone could feel the energy mounting and the tide turning. For every dive on the floor for a dig and block at the net Quinnipiac’s confidence and intensity rose emphatically. After the Bobcats tied the game at 13-13 the Iona coaching staff took another preemptive timeout to rally their team, however, that timeout marked the turning point for the Quinnipiac. After that timeout, they took the lead never once surrendering it back to Iona with the help of a 12- 3 run that shut the door on the Gaels and any hope they had of coming back.

Set number three proved to be the most trying set for the Bobcats all afternoon. They couldn’t string together runs as easily as they had done in the previous two sets. Not to mention there were a series of spikes the Bobcats had trouble returning and their defense wasn’t as stellar as the first two sets.

After exorcising their demons of the third set the Bobcats came out with a renewed focus and spirit that resembled the first two sets of the match. For every big spike or block, the Bobcats had an answer. The theme of tightly contested sets was still in effect for most of the set until Quinnipiac pulled away for the team’s first conference win of the season.

While the players tried to operate as if this win was business as usual and not bigger than any other, the Bobcats had to admit the long sought after victory felt good.

“It’s going to create some great momentum for us. Everyone was anxious to get that first W, but we got it, so we got it out of the way. (We’ll) let it be a good thing today and get back to work tomorrow,” Baker told the media.

The Bobcats hope to use that momentum to string along a chain of conference wins as they take on Manhattan on Sunday at 1 p.m at Burt Kahn Court.