Quinnipiac field hockey struggles again, drops seventh in a row
Photo Courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics
October 20, 2019
The Quinnipiac field hockey team should have been celebrating its class of 2020 and head coach Becca Main’s 200th win after their game against Yale for senior day. Instead they came off the field with a loss, frustration and disappointment.
The Bobcats (3-12) lost to the Bulldogs (4-9) in a 2-1 game for their seventh straight loss of the season.
“We’re getting ourselves to the situation where we’re having one of the worst seasons we’ve had in the history of field hockey here, and I think the most troublesome for us is the lack of consistency which I’ve talked about,” Main said. “You can be dominating in a game for 30 minutes and ahead at half and then just make critical errors at times that are unacceptable by people that don’t make those kind of errors.”
The Bulldogs came out strong in the game with an offensive push all the way to the Bobcats’ circle, but Quinnipiac’s defense managed to clear the ball.
The half was back-and-forth from there with Yale getting three shots, and Quinnipiac getting four.
The Bobcats’ fourth shot turned in a goal. They got their first penalty corner of the game with five seconds left in the half. Junior defender Jess Halley sent it to senior midfielder Ines Ruiz Martinez who stopped it for graduate midfielder Bianka Strubbe. Strubbe then rocketed the ball high over the shoulder of Yale goalkeeper Sydney Terroso for the score.
“I mean, well, that’s my job to do, like I’m doing corners, basically, they base it on me,” Strubbe said. “So my job is to finish them.”
Going into the half with the lead, Main said her team had great energy, but the second half did not go the Bobcats’ way.
Yale got a penalty corner early in the second quarter, and they mimicked Quinnipiac’s last corner. Junior Imogen Davies passed to sophomore defender Katie Pieterse. Pieterse stopped the ball to set up junior Olivia Leveiux’s drive into the net.
“We typically spend too much time trying to see what a team is going to give us before we say ‘oh we’re going to give this back’,” Main said. “That’s probably the root of our entire problem right there: why do you have to sit and wait for three or four minutes into a quarter to see what someone’s going to do when you should be on the initiative on that side.”
The Bobcats’ frustration grew as Yale pulled ahead in the fourth quarter. Senior midfielder Bridget Condie got a pass from sophomore midfielder Theodora Dillman and then ripped a shot low past Quinnipiac goalkeeper Mack Vorel.
The Bobcats could not manage to tie the game up, even after pulling Vorel for an extra field player.
“We spend too much time digesting our opponent,” Main said. “Why aren’t you just going after the game. Whether it’s checkers, whether it’s you know club rugby or women’s soccer team, whatever you’re going after, why are we sitting and digesting and waiting so much for to see what happens.”
The Bobcats have three games left in the season, including two Big East matchups against Old Dominion and Temple.
“I want to win some more games,” senior forward Amanda Blum said. “I hope to score and, you know, just give everything I have give 100 percent that’s you know, that’s all I can possibly do.”
