Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Josh Silverman
“…We’re ready for anyone. I think that whoever we get we will prepare like we do and we will go out and attack them.”
Carly Fabbri, Quinnipiac’s junior captain, stood at the podium after beating Canisius on Saturday to clinch Quinnipiac’s third straight regular season championship and delivered a message to the rest of the conference.
“People should be scared of us. We’re not scared of them.”
The message comes almost a year after the Bobcats saw their NCAA tournament birth slip away as the Iona Gaels defeated them in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game.
Although the Bobcats sit atop the MAAC, there are other teams that are right on their tail. The road to the NCAA Tournament will not be an easy one, but the Bobcats are confident they can defeat any opponent they face.
Quinnipiac is still looking for revenge against the team that ruined its 2015 season. Unlike last season when Quinnipiac swept Iona in the regular season, this year each team in this rivalry won its home matchup.
“There’s no one that we don’t want to face. I think that obviously Iona beat us last year so that might be nice to get a little revenge but I don’t think its ever good for a team to go in thinking ‘We don’t want to play this team’ then you just psych yourself out,” Carly Fabbri said before adding, “We’re ready for anyone.”
Fabbri and her teammates enter the MAAC Tournament playing arguably their best basketball of the season. Quinnipiac ended the regular season on a seven game winning streak, outscoring opponents by a total of 133 points during that span.
“I like that individual players are playing their best basketball,” head coach Tricia Fabbri said, “and I think we’re playing mentally tough basketball.”
The Bobcats are entering the tournament as the No. 1 seed, however it isn’t the end goal for the team.
“We want the real championship, and that is during the tournament,” Quinnipiac senior guard Adily Martucci said, “but it is nice to be seeded this high.”
The regular season title comes with an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament if Quinnipiac isn’t able to win its conference tournament.
Carly Fabbri knows this isn’t the end of the line for Quinnipiac.
“Personally I think its what you expect going in. We set goals at the beginning of each season and this is just one of the goals we’ve accomplished. Obviously it’s nice to have that No. 1 spot to start off but we know that this is not our end destination. The three games in Albany will determine how we are going to end the season.”
Forgive the Bobcats if they aren’t celebrating just yet. They have been in this exact situation before.
Two years ago Fabbri’s squad went undefeated in conference play, notching the regular season and postseason title in the process. Last year the Bobcats fell to their first three conference opponents before turning it on, winning 19 straight until the championship game.
Quinnipiac won’t play its first game until Friday, March 3. Barring a major upset, it won’t play again until Sunday, March 5, in the semi-finals. With a target on its back, Quinnipiac is eager to get back to the NCAA Tournament.