The Quinnipiac women’s soccer team defeated the Canisius Golden Griffins with a score of 3-1 on Thursday afternoon. With this win, the Bobcats will advance to the MAAC championship game on Sunday afternoon.
Both teams got off to slow starts, as neither team was looking to take any risks early on.
The first chance of the game came in the 19th minute when Bobcats junior midfielder Molly Andrews had an opportunity to open the scoring inside the 18 yard box, but her shot went wide left of the net.
The Golden Griffins nearly took the lead right after Andrews’ opportunity in the 20th minute. S A long ball from a set piece by Canisius deflected off a Quinnipiac player to the feet of senior forward Madeline Weltin. Weltin fired her shot to the left bottom corner that forced graduate student goalkeeper Sofia Lospinoso to make an incredible save.
The Bobcats’ last chance of the first half came in the 29th minute, when senior defender Madison Mandleur shot from inside the 18 yard box towards the bottom left corner. Senior keeper Jordan Spencer made a challenging save for Canisius.
Graduate forward Courtney Chochol opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a screamer, curling the ball from outside the left of the 18 yard box.
“We’ve worked really hard to get to this point, and I’m glad that it’s been able to show,” Chochol said. “Job’s not done though, so we’ll see what happens Sunday.”
Just a few minutes later, senior midfielder Aisling Spillane scored the second goal for the Bobcats after she received a through ball from senior midfielder Rachel Roman that perfectly led Spillane to fire her shot into the bottom left corner.
“Just waking up this morning, I just had a good feeling that if I know I work hard then good things will come,” Spillane said. “We played our game and I don’t think anyone can beat us when we play our game.”
In the 87th minute, junior forward Skylar Cornell played a ball for junior forward Mia Iacona. She set up her shot inside the 18 yard box and rifled the ball into the top right corner. The Golden Griffins’ goal came too late to attempt a comeback.
“It’s just the next game you know, we’ve said that all season and we’re not going to change it now,” head coach Dave Clarke said. “My speeches are shorter, practices are shorter, everything is just short, sharp, you know your principles I’ve reminded them constantly, don’t change anything.”
The Bobcats will play either the No. 1 Fairfield Stags or No. 5 Manhattan Jaspers on Sunday afternoon in the MAAC championship, with an opportunity to move on to the 2024 NCAA Division I women’s College Cup.
