After three weeks straight of away tournaments, the Quinnipiac University women’s volleyball team now looks towards their first in-conference game at home. The Bobcats are coming off a stellar 2022 season after winning the MAAC Conference Tournament and making the NCAA Tournament both for the first time in school history.
In those three weekends of tournament play, the Bobcats went 4-5 against strong opponents, some including Virginia and Virginia Tech. Quinnipiac won at least one game in each of their three tournaments.
Several awards were given to members of the team throughout the tournaments. In the second week of play, first-year Leilani-Kai Gusta was awarded MAAC Rookie of the Week. Gusta received two conference awards the following week, which included Rookie of the Week and Player of the Week. Sophomore Yagmur Gunes received MAAC Player of the Week on Sept. 5.
After being voted to lead the MAAC alongside Marist College in the preseason poll, the Quinnipiac women get set to return to their home, Burt Kahn Court, to face two conference opponents over the weekend.
On Saturday, the Niagara University Purple Eagles will travel to Hamden, Connecticut for their first conference matchup. Although Niagara only has one win on their season out of eight games, that one win was in their previous matchup against Kent State University.
With Quinnipiac coming off a loss and Niagara coming off their first win of the season, this matchup should be a good one, especially since they split their two matchups last season.
On Sunday, the Canisius College Golden Griffins will travel to Hamden to face Quinnipiac which would be their second conference opponent of the season. The Golden Griffins are set to take on Fairfield University on Saturday, so they will be staying in Connecticut for the weekend.
Last year, the Bobcats and the Golden Griffs also split their matchups last season; however, the Bobcats were victorious at home.
A key player of the Bobcats for these matchups is one of their outside hitter, Gusta. She is coming off several awards from the past week and will be her first game at home, so with the home crowd support and the weekly awards, she will be motivated to be strong in front of a home crowd.
For the Purple Eagles, one player to watch out for is senior outside hitter Lexi Bapst. Bapst has recorded double-digit kills in her last three matches while being ranked sixth in the MAAC in kills.
For the Golden Griffs, junior outside hitter Kara Zaucha is a key player to look out for. In her first season, she made the MAAC All-Rookie Team and in one of her last two matches, Zaucha recorded a double-double with 13 kills and 18 digs against Purdue Fort Wayne.
All home games will be at 1:00 p.m. EST and will be streamed on gobobcats.com. If you don’t have the ability to watch the live stream, these games will also be live-tweeted on the @QBSN X account.
