After pulling off the upset and knocking off No. 3 Canisius in the quarterfinal round, the Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse team headed down the Merritt Parkway to meet their kryptonite — the Fairfield Stags — in the semi-final round of the MAAC tournament.
The Bobcats were an eye-opening 0-18 against the Stags coming into the matchup all-time, but this Quinnipiac squad was without a doubt one of the stronger teams in recent memory. Despite a legacy performance from star Cate Bendowski, the blue and yellow were unable to advance and had their season come to a screeching halt by a final of 13-9.
Despite the loss, head coach Jordan Solari had a smirk of pride on her face postgame. She knew big things were coming for her program, and that this was only the beginning.
“I know the scoreboard doesn’t reflect it, but I fully and wholeheartedly believe in the people that we have in that locker room… I believe in the program that we’ve built and I know that the Bobcats will be back to make another run next year.”
The Bobcats knew they had to come out firing on all cylinders — and they did just that. After a two goal performance against Canisius, Peyton Choma drew first blood going top shelf to put the Bobcats up 1-0.
Though the scoreboard didn’t show it over the first few minutes of the contest, the Bobcats had opportunities to score seemingly at will. Shot after shot though, Stags netminder Whitney Robinson deflected every burner that came her way which allowed her relentless offense to go down the other way and tie the game up at one.
Though the blue and yellow came out firing, the sheer power of the Stags lineup was too much early on — after a pair of Bobcat penalties, Fairfield found the back of the net on a free position shot to give them their first advantage of the game. A Kyleigh Tufano goal for the Stags a minute later would make it 3-1 Fairfield.
At the first media timeout, the Bobcats were yet to win a draw. That ultimately was the story of the game, as the Stags large draw advantage in the first quarter paved the way in the loss. Solari knew how much of an impact they had on the outcome.
“Those are pivotal plays. We did a really good job gaining momentum on a lot of those, but we also missed some that normally would just go into our sticks.”
The Cats rebounded in the second though, scoring three goals in 90 seconds to tie the game at four early in the second quarter. That rally was led by senior Cate Bendowski, who had two assists and one goal in that one sequence. Bendowski finished the game with seven points, making an impact on almost every Bobcats goal.
At the half, the score was 6-5 advantage Stags. Penalties proved to be another catalyst of the Bobcats elimination, giving the Stags plenty of momentum which led to a handful of free position shots. Fairfield netted five of those, proving to be the difference in the game.
Though Quinnipiac kept the game close throughout, they were never able to have that one game changing goal. This led to the Stags shutting the door at the end of the fourth quarter, burning clock and ultimately putting Fairfield in the MAAC championship.
Solari believes all her squad needs is some experience, which is something that the Bobcats lack with a whopping twelve first-years rounding out the roster. Through leadership next year, she knows how valuable a playoff run like this is for a young core.
“We now have that experience a little bit more, especially with twelve freshmen getting to be a part of that game today. We got a taste of it, and now we just have to execute it consistently starting in September.”
The Bobcats now head back to the drawing board, where they’ll try and pave their way back to another deep playoff run. The foundation is set for the Bobcats — this is just the beginning for a young group of budding stars.
