After the win this past Sunday against Marist, the No. 2 Quinnipiac women’s soccer team faced off against the No. 4 Siena Saints on a sunny but brisk Thursday afternoon. 

The Saints have had the Bobcats number the past few matchups, defeating them 1-0 on Oct. 16 as of most recent. 

Through the first half, it seemed that no one was going to score, until the 42nd minute when the Bobcats looked to clear the ball out of harm’s way until Emily McNlis found the back of the net from the top of the box after the clearance. 

That was the only goal of the first half, as the Saints led the Bobcats 1-0. 

“They listened to us,” said Quinnipiac head coach Dave Clarke. “If they [Quinnipiac] are going to go down, don’t go down passively.”

The Bobcats came out of the locker room anything but passive, applying pressure right as the whistle blew to begin the second half. 

Senior Selena Salas and her right foot gave the team multiple opportunities to tie and even go ahead off of free kicks in the first 20 minutes of the second half. 

In the 74th minute, the game looked to be back to even when Salas headed the ball past the goalkeeper, but the sideline referee called her offside. 

“I thought she was offside from my angle,” Clarke said. “I always glance over. It’s part of the game. There are 90 minutes of those types of emotions.”

Just 10 minutes later, a cross was put in by Kayla Mingachos where it found the right foot of sophomore sensation Rebecca Cooke. That was their only goal of regulation, as well as both overtimes that were played in this game. 

It would come down to the guessing game that is penalty kicks.

The collection of Lauren Wendland, Cooke, Courtney Chochol, and Salas all put their shots past the Saints keeper. 

The Saints did the most they could to try to save their season, scoring three of their four attempted shots. 

The deciding factor of the game came off of the boot of Lauren Triglione. The graduate student did not have too much pressure going into the final shot that would seal the game. 

“I’ve visualized it a million times before,” Triglione said. “I wasn’t even really looking, I just knew it was going to go in.”

With that game-sealing goal, the Bobcats advance to the MAAC Championship where they will play the winner of Monmouth and Fairfield this coming Sunday.