Quinnipiac Lax earning honors, but coming up short in NEC Playoffs

April 28th, 2007
‘Cats can’t climb the Mount
John Chagaris

EMMITSBURG, Maryland — Two Long Islanders who were a key component to the Bobcats making their fourth straight NEC Tournament bid were rewarded with All-NEC Second Team honors. Freshmen midfielder Brittany Hauser from East Northport, NY who also won national honors being named National Rookie of the Week, and junior defender Jamie Zeitler of West Islip, NY. Hauser became the second freshman in Bobcats history to be named to an All-NEC team, Tiffany Manzi was named to the All-NEC First team last season.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats these were the only awards the team took home from Mount Saint Mary’s, as they were eliminated by the Mount Friday afternoon 13-8.

The Bobcats started early when Tiffany Manzi scored her 23rd goal of the season just over two and a half minutes into the game to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. The Mountaineers struck right back with three goals, including Casey Paris’ 42nd goal of the season. Bobcat’s Banach (12) and Fiore (27) each hit a marker to tie the game at 3 with 6:23 to go in the first, as close as the Bobcats would come to the Mountaineers.

Over the next 24 minutes, the Quinnipiac defense went limp, allowing 8 unanswered goals, 6 of which were unassisted, 3 of which from Kathleen Rossetti (17). With the Bobcats down 11-3 and just over ten minutes to go the Bobcats found their defense which sparked their offense, Lyndsey Banach scored, just over a minute later Manzi scored on a free position shot, 7 seconds later Kaitlyn Vennard scored to cut the lead to 11-6.

Over a minute later, Hannah Nelson made a save, cleared it right to Janelle Lopez who found Manzi for her third goal of the game, a Lyndsey Banach goal 2 and a half minutes later cut the lead to 11-8. The deficit was just too much for the Bobcats who had trouble getting shots on goal, Mount Saint Mary’s took more shots in the second half (22) than the Bobcats took the entire game (19). Even facing all those shots, Hannah Nelson saved 14 of the shots, almost 3 times more than her counterpart Jane Karger who made 5 the entire game.

The Mountaineers would score two goals, including one with 8 seconds remaining to take the game 13-8 and advanced to face Monmouth in the NEC Championship game on Sunday.

The Bobcats have a very bright future being led by Freshmen Brittany Hauser. While Quinnipiac is losing talent in Kara Cornelius, Kristen McCarthy, Sophia Pantelides, and Meghan Turner, they are an extremely young team who will look to make the NEC Tournament for the fifth straight year next year, and with Freshman Hauser and leading scorers Junior Tiffany Manzi, Nicole Fiore and with a healthy Ashley Valentine all returning it should be a very fun season next spring.

Despite loss, Quinnipiac advances into NEC Playoffs

Bobcats back in
John Chagaris

West Long Branch, NJ - It’s been a season of highs and lows, a season of incredible defense, and a season where Coach Caro wondered where the defense is. In recent history, beginning with the Bobcats game against CCSU on March 23rd, the Bobcats began a trend where they struggled in the first half but were lights out in the second half. A trend that ended Friday afternoon at Monmouth University.

After dropping 3 of their last four NEC Conference games, the mission was simple, win and gain a second seed in the North East Conference, or with a loss Quinnipiac could drop out of the NEC Tournament all together. The Bobcats took to the field against the Monmouth Hawks, the only team in the Northeast Conference the Bobcats have never defeated in their ten year run in the NEC. After falling to Mount Saint Mary’s last week, Monmouth was looking for revenge against the Bobcats as the Hawks have never in their programs history lost two straight NEC contests. Just under three minutes into the game, Lyndsay Banach got the game going for the Bobcats, with her 9th goal of the season the Bobcats took a 1-0 lead, which was all the momentum the Bobcats would get, within the next 9 minutes the Monmouth Hawks scored three to take a 3-1 lead. Meghan and Katie Latonick would gel together to give Megan her 7th goal of the year, to cut the lead to 3-2 but that is as close as the Bobcats would get.

3 Minutes later and goals by Megas Brennan, on a Free position shot, Megan Nutter, Ashley Waldman on a free position shot, Carolyn Baveta and then once again by Megan Brennan gave the Hawks an insurmountable 8-2 lead. Banach would later score a second goal for the Bobcats, and Erin Coffey put in two but it just wasn’t enough as the Hawks won 17-7.

With a Mount Saint Mary’s win on Friday over Robert Morris, Quinnipiac has clinched their fourth straight trip to the NEC Championships which begins on Friday, April 27th from Emmitsburg, Maryland on the campus of Mount Saint Mary’s. Depending on the outcomes of this weekends games, the Bobcats will either be the third seed, with a Sacred Heart loss and a Robert Morris/Long Island win, or a fourth seed with a Sacred Heart win, as Sacred Heart owns the tie breaker. A third seed will introduce a rematch against Monmouth University, while a fourth seed would be against undefeated Mount Saint Mary’s.

The Bobcats enter the NEC Tournament for the fourth straight year, fifth overall, and are looking for their first trip in school’s history to the NEC Championship game after falling to Sacred Heart last year and Monmouth the two previous seasons, while the Bobcats are still searching for that illusive second seed or higher in the NEC Tournament, their goal now is their first NEC Tournament win.

Valentine takes home NEC Honor

Ashley Valentine takes home NEC Player of the week
John Chagaris
April 2nd, 2007

HAMDEN - The awards continue to fall in Quinnipiac’s favor as the Northeast Conference has announced sophomore Ashley Valentine was named Northeast Conference Player of the Week, the second Quinnipiac player to be named within the last three weeks: Tiffany Manzi won on April 19th. Valentine secured the honor with two outstanding performances this past weekend against Saint Francis PA and Robert Morris. Against Robert Morris, Valentine tied her career high when she had five points, including four goals. She led the Lady Bobcats with capturing 3 ground balls and causing three turnovers against Robert Morris. Valentine is the sixth Bobcat to earn NEC honors this season; Erin Coffey was named NEC Defensive player of the Week on March 5th, Kelly Bruneau was NEC Rookie of the Week on March 12th, the aforementioned Tiffany Manzi was NEC Player of the Week and Katie Latonic was NEC Rookie of the Week on March 19th, Brittany Hauser was named NEC Rookie of the Week last week.

Nelson Magic

Hannah Nelson and Ashley Valentine lead Bobcats to 12-7 win
John Chagaris
April 1st, 2007

MOON TOWNSHIP, PA — The weather may have been raining, but it was not dogs that were falling but many Bobcat goals, and on the flip side, goals were being stopped with ease by freshman phenom Hannah Nelson. Quinnipiac defeated Robert Morris 12-7, and in the process Hannah Nelson set the Quinnipiac rookie record for women’s lacrosse by winning her sixth game between the pipes. With the victory Quinnipiac also set two school records: best start in NEC play extending their NEC record to 4-0, and winning its fourth consecutive game.

Just over a minute into the game, Ashley Valetine tallied her 17th goal. Five different Bobcats earned a point before Robert Morris could score, Katy Delagi, Tiffany Manzi, Brittany Hauser and Nicole Flore the other four. Quinnipiac would score 10 times in the first half while Nelson stopped 9 of the 14 shots against her in the first half. Quinnipiac would never trail in this one.

When all was said and done Ashley Valentine scored 4 goals and recorded 5 points, Nicole Fiore had 5 points (2 G 3A) Katy Delagi had 3 points (2 G 1 A) and Meghan Latonic, National Rookie of the week Brittany Hauser, Katie Latonic and Tiffany Manzi all came away with a goal apiece. Quinnipiac improves their record to 6-3, 4-0 in the NEC.