Following Wednesday’s loss at Yale, the Quinnipiac Bobcats looked to collect their first win of the season as they hosted the undefeated UMass Lowell River Hawks Saturday afternoon.
In a game with nine lead changes, which also saw three players record three or more goals on the day, it would be UMass Lowell leaving Hamden with the 11-9 win to kick off its season with a 5-0 start. On the other side, Quinnipiac and interim head coach Jordan Christopher will have to wait at least one more game before Christopher can get her first win as a head coach.
“We battled hard, we won the ground balls, we won the shots, we just couldn’t put it past (Alexa Kuhn). Their goalkeeper played a great game,” Christopher said.
The Bobcats statistically outshot the River Hawks 28-22, won more draws than the River Hawks and won the turnover battle, yet it would not prove to be enough to get the win.
The two key performances on the UMass Lowell side that proved to be the difference-makers came from the first-year goalkeeper Kuhn who stopped 16 shots, and first-year attack Chloe Bowers, who tallied five of the 11 River Hawks goals. Kuhn’s counterpart across the field, junior Lindsay Mazzucco, made 5 saves and allowed 11 goals.
The Bobcats had some impressive performances of their own on offense with a combined seven goals between junior attacker Angelina Sparacio and junior midfielder EllaGrace Delmond. Delmond ended the day with four goals, three of which all came in the third quarter while Sparacio tallied a hat trick in the first half.
“She’s just confident on who she is as a lacrosse player right now and we’re gonna ride on that for sure,” Christopher said when discussing the breakout performance from Sparacio.
Sparacio appeared in 16 games last season for the Bobcats but only started two of them, recording four goals during that stretch. This season, Sparacio already has seven goals in only two games.
The game started with an early 3-1 lead for UMass Lowell — one that was promptly evened out after two goals from Sparacio. The River Hawks would net one more before the end of the quarter to make the score 4-3 after the first 15 minutes of play.
The Bobcats would continue to apply pressure into the second quarter, adding another goal from Sparacio, and goals from senior midfielder Lauren Kenny and Delmond, who recorded her first of three. UMass Lowell would respond with three goals of its own to even the score 6-6 at the end of the first half.
Quinnipiac would escape the third quarter with an 8-7 lead after fending off a strong UMass Lowell attack, when three Bobcats received cards to give the River Hawks a three-player advantage for almost two minutes. However, Quinnipiac would not allow the River Hawks to capitalize.
Quinnipiac would take a 9-8 lead early into the final quarter before UMass Lowell scored three straight to end the game. The River Hawks scored the game winner following a timeout from head coach Lisa Miller inside the final five minutes of the game. Her team responded just under 30 seconds later with the eventual game-winning goal from Bowers to make it a 10-9 game.
Bowers would ice the game with her fifth goal with 1:04 remaining in the game to put things out of reach. A late push from the Bobcats wasn’t enough as they now fall to 0-2 to start the season, while UMass Lowell improves to an impressive 5-0 start.
Quinnipiac will have a chance to get into the win column next Wednesday when they travel interstate to face off against Sacred Heart, marking the halfway point of its out-of-conference schedule.
