The Quinnipiac women’s soccer team will have the chance to make their biggest preseason goal a reality this Saturday: win an NCAA Tournament game.
The Bobcats drew the three-seeded Brown University Bears in Monday’s NCAA selection show and will make the trip up to Providence this Friday.
Beating Brown will not be an easy task whatsoever. The Bears are a juggernaut this season. They made their fourth straight NCAA tournament berth behind an 11-2-2 record, No. 14 national ranking, and the eighth-best RPI ranking in the country. But they are not invincible. Brown was upset in the Ivy League playoffs in extra time by unranked Columbia 2-1.
Brown’s roster is stacked. Three-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year Brittney Raphino leads the attack with 12 goals on the season, five of them game-winners. The team spreads the scoring around well behind her with senior midfielder Sheyanne Allen, junior forward Miya Grant-Clavijo and senior forward Kiya Maguire all scoring three goals on the season. Freshman Joy Okonye (eight assists) and senior Ava Seelenfreund (four assists) have been weapons setting up those scorers. The Bears are talented on the defensive end as well. Led by All-Ivy defender Jessica Hinton and goalkeeper Clare Gagne, opposing teams are scoring less than one goal per game against them.
These Bobcats might have the talent to make a first-round upset a reality, though. The team has a full year of tournament experience under their belt from last year’s first round appearance against Penn State. On top of winning their second straight MAAC Championship, the team is riding an eleven game unbeaten streak. A whopping eleven Bobcats received All-MAAC honors, seven of them making first team. Senior forward Courtney Chochol won the league’s Golden Boot award behind an eight goal, nine assist campaign. Right behind her in the scoring are senior midfielder Emely van der Vliet (six goals) and graduate forward Lily Schnieders (five goals).
On the defensive end, senior goalkeeper Sofia Lospinoso claimed the league’s Golden Glove award after logging seven shutouts and finishing with a 0.980 goals against average. Graduate students Kayla Mingachos, Olivia Scott and Markela Bejleri finished in a three way tie for the MAAC Defensive Players of the Year award, anchoring a unit that allowed the fewest shots on goal in the conference. All-MAAC defenders Madison Mandleur and Victoria Foster have been fantastic on the back line as well.
“I’m so excited…. It’s not over yet,” Mingachos said after winning the MAAC Championship. “We have at least two more games in us.”
Mingachos and the rest of the team have displayed a poised confidence heading into the match. They feel sure about themselves and don’t plan to give anything but a winning effort.
“We’re all super excited just to have this opportunity.” sophomore midfielder Madison Alves said at the selection show. “I think it’ll be a really good matchup for us too.”
The Bobcats’ success this season has hinged on keeping the ball in the offensive zone as much as possible, peppering opposing defenses with shots and wearing them down. Their defensive success revolves around keeping opposing forwards in front of them, blocking shot attempts before they even get to Lospinoso and forcing takeaways.
They struggled against another Ivy League opponent, the Princeton Tigers, back in September. Though they lost that match 4-2, Quinnipiac kept that game competitive. Princeton’s speed was just too much for the Bobcats to contain defensively. If Brown displays a similar speed advantage on Saturday, things could get difficult for the Bobcats. Brown has not played a MAAC team yet this season.
Head coach Dave Clarke said that the team’s biggest takeaway from the Penn State match last year was the conditioning needed to compete with higher level competition. The Bobcats played like the fittest team in the MAAC this season, dominating opponents with their endurance and physicality.
“You draw on your experience. We had a lot of experience last year and there were some things we wrote down right away [after Penn State],” Clarke said. “We also learned from the first game against Fairfield, we learned from the Princeton game and now hopefully we can learn again moving forward.”
Now, they’ll have to see if that translates to national competition.
This should be a competitive match from start to finish. It’ll also be a great coaching battle. Both Clarke and Brown’s head coach Kia McNeill won their respective league’s Coach of the Year award. The Bears may be the favorited squad, but this is a Bobcats team you don’t want to count out.
Kickoff will be at 4 P.M. at Stevenson-Pincince Field in Providence, Rhode Island this Saturday. You can also listen to the game live on QBSN.
