As the regular season winds to an end, the Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s soccer team is fighting for a favorable seed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Bobcats were unable to secure the lift they needed on Tuesday against the Manhattan Jaspers.

The Bobcats entered Tuesday’s match sitting at 8-7, good for fourth place in the MAAC. The team tied in overtime to the 3-10-1 Manhattan Jaspers, as the opportunity to move past the Rider Broncs in the MAAC standings passed them by.

The first half was a tale of quality versus quantity. Quinnipiac peppered the box with floor crosses and balls through the back line, but none connected with the foot of a Bobcat attacker. Meanwhile, the Jaspers capitalized on the missed attempts and pieced together solid counterattacks.

Manhattan finally broke through in the 34th minute of the first half, when junior forward Arianna Montefusco climbed the ladder in the box on a corner kick and headed it home. The goal was Montefusco’s 19th goal of her collegiate career, good for ninth-most in Manhattan program history.

Things became chippy near the end of the first half when Manhattan junior midfielder Bri Deleo entered the referee’s book after refusing to back away from a Quinnipiac free kick. Freshman defender Kayla Mingachos pled her case to the referee and he, after warning Deleo several times, dove into his pocket and showed Deleo yellow.

Quinnipiac refused to enter the break at a disadvantage, and sophomore midfielder Selena Salas saw to that. On a low cross from freshman defender Olivia Scott, Salas slid at full extension inside the six-yard box and put the ball on the roof of the net. The halftime horn sounded two minutes later, a brand new game awaiting in the second half.

“There’s nobody that can bring a player like her off the bench, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” head coach Dave Clarke said when asked about Salas and her impact on the game.

The Bobcats started the second half on a tear, putting together chance after chance, but were again unable to make anything happen with them. Mingachos had the best chance after being led by a ball through the middle, but was met by senior goalkeeper Camryn Nici, who collected the pass.

The second half contained little action, as most chances for either team ended in errant passes or wide shots. The regulation buzzer went off and overtime began, Manhattan aiming to play spoiler against the top-four Bobcats.

Nici put the team on her back in double overtime, as she was square to the task of saving two shots off the foot of Scott. The game ended in a frustrating 1-1 tie, as the Bobcats were unable to convert any of their ten shots after halftime.

“90% of the time, the team who scores the first goal is the team who wins,” Clarke said. “You hate to say it, but this is a game where the first goal is massively important.”

Quinnipiac’s final regular-season game is a home showdown against the Siena Saints on Oct. 30, a team that the Bobcats have won only two of their last 10 matches against.