By: Sierra Goodwill
The first season playing at the Quinnipiac Soccer Stadium has come and gone for Quinnipiac women’s soccer, which tied the Manhattan Jaspers 1-1 in its home finale on Wednesday afternoon.
Though Quinnipiac dominated possession, the majority of the first half was filled with empty chances for the Bobcats.
That was until Ally Grunstein got around the centering pass from Carly Glaser and found twine in the bottom left corner of the net with just over six minutes to play.
BOBCATS GOAL: Ally Grunstein gives QU the 1-0 lead with a pinch over 6 minutes to play in the first half. pic.twitter.com/SUH9gIvHOK
— QU Women’s Soccer (@QUWomensSoccer) October 18, 2017
“You never want to go in when you’re on top of a team, in any sport, and not score and not convert and we are no different,” head coach Dave Clarke said. “So yes, it was good. The disappointment is that we didn’t build on it.”
After halftime the No. 2 team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference made it clear it was not going down without a fight.
Eight minutes in to the second half Manhattan forward Emma Saul was left wide open in front of the net. She tapped the ball easily past Bobcats’ goalie Olivia Myszewski to tie the game, 1-1.
Clarke believes that it was forward Nadya Gill who should take the majority of the blame for this breakdown.
“It starts up top, Nadya not giving the ball to Al [Pelletier]. Sometimes what she does is she tries to force it, tries to be everybody and doesn’t bring her teammates into the play,” the head coach said. “And then what ends up happening is players step up to support and she loses the ball and then we are caught in transition. She gets all the plaudits when she scores goals, she’s gotta take responsibility in this situation.”
Gill, however, gives more credit to Manhattan.
“They did a really good job of controlling the ball through the middle,” she said. “They were patient with it, they went around the box and we just didn’t mark the players we should have.”
For the rest of regulation Quinnipiac never settled back down, desperately trying to regain the lead. Gill thinks that this dragged the Bobcats away from their identity.
“We were frantic. We were getting worried about the game,” number 10 said. “It obviously showed from the balls that our defenders were just kicking up, once we got to the top we didn’t control it. [Manhattan’s] goal changed the momentum of the game and changed the way we were playing.”
Wednesday’s match marks the seventh time the Bobcats have gone into overtime this season. With conference playoffs just around the corner, Clarke plans to work penalty kicks into practice time.
“I think every team will be working on penalty kicks,” Clarke said. “If you don’t, you’re overlooking something significant.”
Coming away with just one point against the Jaspers bumps the Bobcats down to fifth place in the MAAC standings. This puts much more pressure on the last game of the season on Saturday against Canisius.
Quinnipiac is not only trying to secure a first round bye in the postseason, but also avoid playing powerhouse Monmouth until the championship game.
“In the end it might be a good point picked up,” Clarke said. “But right now it’s two points dropped.”
