By: Cali Kees
“Hello, Bobcats! Quinnipiac Athletics will provide a bus to the Women’s Basketball MAAC Championship game on Monday, March 5 in Albany, NY,” Quinnipiac Box Office said in an email to the student body.
The bus left at 11 a.m. last Monday from the TD Bank Sports Center, transporting students, faculty and staff to the Time’s Union Center in Albany to watch the Women’s Basketball team both take home their second consecutive MAAC Championship title and gain entry into the NCAA Tournament.
“Two of the girls in my dorm play for the team, so it was really nice they provided transportation,” freshmen Caroline Carter said. “It was fun getting to see our friends there because they don’t really live local, one’s from Italy and the other is from Ohio.”
This is not the first season that Quinnipiac has offered fan buses to away games and it will not be the last, as long as there is enough interest.
“It’s probably been [offered] since we opened up the building up here so probably about ten years…maybe eleven and it’s usually for the bigger games,” Executive Director of the TD Bank Sports Center Eric Grgurich said.
The fan buses are offered so that Quinnipiac can bring the crowd for away games, which Grgurich feels can only add to the fan experience.
“It is part of the experience as the fan, I think it is cool to go to these other venues and cheer on your team…and give them support,” he said.
Students like Carter and Camila Maturana would agree.
“When they provided the bus for the finals [I was] like I’m going, I’m definitely going,” Maturana said.
The fan buses are also a part of how Quinnipiac Athletics is trying to increase the student bodies school spirit.
“You know if you’re watching them on TV, you see these big crowds…and we want to sort of build that up so we have a great presence for these games.” Grgurich explained.
And a great presence is exactly what Grgurich is expecting for Saturday’s game, as the women’s basketball team heads to Storrs, Connecticut for a rematch with eighth-seeded Miami Hurricanes for the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Free fan buses are, again, being offered to students, faculty, staff and season ticket holders from TD Banks Sports Center.
“I think we’ll have a good 600 to 700 people up there. I think we will have a really strong presence up there for the game on Saturday,” Grguirch said.
