Turner Picks up 100th Win in Quinnipiac Women’s Ice Hockey Season Opener

Aiden Barrett


Highlights by Ethan Logue

Story by Aiden Barrett 

It was a milestone night Sunday at the People’s United Center. Head coach Cassandra Turner picked up her 100th win with the squad she’s coached since the 2015-2016 season.

“It’s interesting as a coach you want to win them all, so when it becomes 100 I keep thinking about the games that we should have won that would have got us here a lot faster, but I guess that’s what makes us all competitive and as a program has put us where we are,” Turner said after the game.

The Bobcats’ bench boss has found much success at Quinnipiac. Right off the bat, she led the Bobcats to their first-ever 30-win season, including just one conference loss at 18-1-4, both team records. The same year, Quinnipiac made the NCAA Tournament for the second time in team history.

Turner would follow that season up with another 20 plus win season at 21-10-6 with a conference record of 13-6-3.

Turner has had an above .500 conference record three of the four seasons with Quinnipiac and a total conference record of 52-25-4. And we should expect numbers like these to increase.

“We came into the season saying that this is the deepest lineup we’ve ever had and the most talented lineup that we’ve ever had,” she said.

“So I get really excited for what our group could look like at full strength and you know there’s no question that we expect to compete for championships.”

Win number 100 was an impressive one. The Bobcats beat the Sacred Heart Pioneers by a score of 6-1 thanks to goals from Renee Saltness, Lexie Adzija, Grace Markey, Nina Steigauf, and Katie Huntington. Six Bobcats had multi-point nights.

It was also a special night for Huntington, the junior forward. 2:44 into the second period, Huntington recorded her first-ever goal and multi-point game for the Bobcats. Her sister Charlotte was just across the red line playing for the Pioneers.

“Well, really I was just so excited,” Huntington said. “It’s an exciting moment when you get back in the bench and all my teammates are just as excited for me. And we’re just happy to be back on the ice. It feels great.”

When talking about what she focused on during the offseason to get off to a booming start, Huntington spoke about various different exercises and training mechanisms she used.

“All through when we were off with at-home quarantine we weren’t able to train here but I made a big focus to focus on the details that we work on with [strength and conditioning coach Brijesh Patel],” she said.

“I did a lot of strength, a lot of speed, a lot of agility and plyometric stuff that I was doing and I was fortunate enough to be able to skate over break so I think all that together really helped me start the season on a good note.”

Huntington and the rest of the Bobcats will look to continue their team’s success with another match up tomorrow against the same Sacred Heart Pioneers that they defeated today six to one.