By: Shane Dennehy
Follow @ShaneDennehy15
Quinnipiac ushered in a new era of women’s lacrosse in Hamden on Wednesday afternoon when it played host to the Yale Bulldogs in the first game at Quinnipiac’s new lacrosse stadium. The Bulldogs beat the Bobcats 13-8.
Yale beat Quinnipiac 21-3 at Yale last season, and the Bobcats were looking to show themselves and the Bulldogs that they could compete against top Ivy League opponents.
Despite keeping the game close, Quinnipiac still did not get the result it was looking for and that attitude will help improve Quinnipiac as a program.
“Today we put up a good fight but still not good enough. We are looking to win and we didn’t do that,” junior midfielder Allison Kuhn said.
Yale controlled the opening draw and the opening minutes but Kyle Larkin stopped Yale’s opening shots. After two saves from Larkin the Bobcats went to work on the offensive side of the field.
Quinnipiac did a good job of moving the ball around in the opening 15 minutes of the game. Ashley Bobinski used some twin magic to find her twin sister Victoria Bobinski to give the Bobcats an early 2-0 lead.
Kyle Larkin struggled against Brown on Saturday, and she looked to rebound against Yale. Larkin made strong saves all afternoon but she did struggle to distribute the ball when Quinnipiac tried to clear it.
“We just have to start seeing the field a little bit quicker and also making sure we have all three lanes filled, but I have no doubt that they’ll get there come Saturday,” Quinnipiac head coach Tanya Kotowicz said.
In order for Quinnipiac to beat Yale it needed to be organized defensively and constantly communicate on the defensive end of the field. Quinnipiac did a good job of this early in the first half but Yale started to show its talent in the second half.
“We focused on grit since our last game and they definitely brought it today,” Kotowicz said. “We have a long way to go but they showed that they are ready to make that progress that we are looking for.”
Quinnipiac will need to keep this effort going throughout the season if it wants to improve on last season’s finish.
“Right from the beginning we had that momentum so it was just trying to build off of that. We executed everything we’ve been working on in practice, so that gave us so much confidence and momentum for us to carry it through the whole game,” sophomore attacker Ashley Bobinski said.
Yale came out of the half on fire as it scored two quick free-position goals. After those two goals Quinnipiac took a timeout to try and get organized.
Unlike in the first half when the timeout helped get Quinnipiac, this timeout did not help the Bobcats. Kotowicz told her team to play like its 0-0, but out of the timeout Aubrey Conti got trapped on the far sideline and lost the ball. Barrett Carlson scooped it up and scored her third goal of the game.
Abbie Zinser scored her fourth goal of the game with 41 seconds left to make it 13-8. The Bobcats lose to their second straight Ivy League opponent and fall to 0-2.
Quinnipiac will play its second home game of the season when it plays the St. Francis Red Flash at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
