The Quinnipiac Bobcats had their first home game of the season spoiled by the Marist Red Foxes this Wednesday, who narrowly defeated their fellow MAAC conference rival in five sets to secure their tenth victory of the season. The loss extended the Bobcat’s current losing streak to three games.

Nicole Legg gave Quinnipiac a four-point victory after delivering an unreturned spike. Marist would come back with a vengeance for set three, roaring to an early 10-5 lead that forced Bobcats head coach Kyle Robinson to call timeout. His efforts were of no use as Marist won the set with a commanding 11-point lead. Nonetheless, the mid-game slump was of no concern to coach Robinson.

“I just think it’s sports in general,” Robinson said. “In any sport, there’s changes in momentum.”

The match stood out like a sore thumb amongst a sea of comparatively nail-biting matchups. Neither team won a set by any more than five points throughout the entire remainder of the game. Both of Quinnipiac’s victories came in back-and-forth battles in the second and fourth sets that both concluded with the scoreboard displaying a final score of 25-21. For Marist, they stole set number one in a decisive 25-22 win and once again barely edged out the Bobcats in the fifth set after outsourcing them 15-10. 

In the closing moments of the final set, Marist turned to junior outside hitter Jordan Newblatt as their go-to offensive weapon. It was a Newblatt spike that gave the Red Foxes an 11-9 lead and kick off what would turn into a pivotal 5-1 scoring run that ended with Marist securing the victory. 

Quinnipiac’s final point would come from Nicole Legg, whose successful spike brought Quinnipiac back to within two points. No other moment of the game received a more enthusiastic reaction from the Quinnipiac crowd who have waited over 300 days for volleyball to return to their home court.

While the outcome of this game might not have been anything new for the Bobcats, whose 2-11 record puts them at eighth in the MAAC conference, the hard-fought nature of the performance was indeed eye-opening. Coming off from back-to-back 3-0 sweeps, the first of which was handed to them by Marist on Sunday the 25th, Quinnipiac extended this matchup well beyond what most expected.

Players from both ends were troubled by continuous wet spots throughout the court, forcing the game to take extended pauses to wipe down the areas of concern. The issue became most apparent in the second set when Marist outside hitter Sasha Van Der Merwe took a scary fall on a spike attempt that handed Quinnipiac an easy additional point.

Later in the second set, a controversial call on another Van Der Merwe spike was eventually overturned after a group discussion among the refs concluded that her hit was indeed legal, awarding Marist with the point and tying the set at seventeen apiece.

The matchup marked the first game in which the Bobcats have had a chance to sport their newly-designed sleeveless home jerseys. After the game, outside hitter Aryanah Diaz gave the new threads her seal of approval:

“It’s a brand new feel, coming out onto your home gym and everybody takes a second look like ‘Oh! Are those new uniforms? They look really nice this year!’”

Diaz, who is now going into her senior year at Quinnipiac, also made it known that she plans on returning to the school as a graduate student in 2023.

“I definitely don’t think this is gonna be my last year,” Diaz said in response to a question that had implied that this might be her last run with the Bobcats.

The Bobcats’ next matchup will be on Oct. 8th, against Iona College.