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.