By: Randy Del Valle
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It was senior day on Saturday for the Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse team as the team faced Canisius at home at the QU Lacrosse Complex. But, the final score wasn’t the result that Quinnipiac was looking for to honor its seniors.
The Bobcats lost to the Golden Griffins, 12-7, the team’s fourth straight loss, as it dropped to 1-5 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Jenna Henningsen started the game strong for Quinnipiac scoring the team’s first two goals. It was a back and forth game early on as both teams scored two goals each in the first six minutes of the first half. From then on Canisius took control of the first half, outplaying Quinnipiac on both offense and defense.
Quinnipiac had 16 shots, but struggled to find the back of the net. Canisius goalkeeper, Rebecca VanLaeken had seven saves and only allowed two goals. The Bobcats had a tough time clearing and defending the Golden Griffins attack in the first half.
“We definitely struggled clearing the ball, we kind of lost it ourselves. We had a lot of turnovers on our end and our clear percentage wasn’t too good,” Quinnipiac senior defender Kiera Kelly said.” I think that’s something that we can fix going to Siena.”
Junior attack Jourdan Roemer had a huge first half for Canisius. She scored two goals and had three assists. Her second goal gave the Golden Griffins an 8-2 lead as Canisius scored six unanswered goals to end the half.
Quinnipiac’s senior goalkeeper, Kyle Larkin, struggled as she allowed eight goals and only had two saves through the first half. Backup Allie Kelsey replaced her in the second half of the game.
“Although it was unfortunate where we were at halftime, we’ve been there before and there’s an opportunity to comeback,” Kelly said. “It’s not something we haven’t done before, it’s just now we have to try to finish the fight.”
After almost 28 minutes without scoring, Quinnipiac freshman Maya Feigenbaum ended the drought. Both teams scored two goals each then Quinnipiac’s offense fought to make a comeback.
Like they have been doing in their past games, the Bobcats started playing better in the second half. Their defensive success translated into offensive opportunities for the team.
Quinnipiac forced Canisius to commit 12 turnovers in the second half, allowing Bobcat players to get better scoring chances.
Ashley Bobinski, Allison Kuhn and Sydney Cowell scored three straight goals for the Bobcats to bring them within three.
With four minutes remaining in the game, Quinnipiac was down 10-7 and its dreams of finishing the comeback ended when Canisius senior Jen Reininger completed her hat trick.
Then with just under three minutes remaining on the clock, Roemer scored her fourth goal of the game, her 40th on the season
Quinnipiac’s defense had no answer for Roemer she finished the game with four goals and five assists. She also had a game and career high of nine points, pushing her point total to 64 on the year.
“It’s still playing like a unit, everyone has a role,” Kelly said. “Everyone is responsible for everyone, if the ball goes in the back of the net it’s all of our faults it’s not just one persons.”
With this loss and only two games left on the season, the Bobcats have a slim chance at making the six-team MAAC Tournament.
Quinnipiac will face Siena on Wednesday and then wrap its season up at Niagara next Saturday.
Kelly said that the mindset of her team moving forward is that they have “nothing to lose.”
