Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:28:22 +0000

Since the 49ers’ season had ended, and the 49ers news front as slowed down, I figured hey! I might as well show off my articles I wrote for my university newspaper, the Quad News.

The articles have not been posted on our website yet, since we’re on Winter Break. But here are my articles, exclusively from my pen to your eyes! You are the first to see these, oh so exclusive, articles. Enjoy!

Thursday, I covered the Quinnipiac Women’s Basketball team taking on NEC-foe, Mount St. Mary’s. The Bobcats lost 59-53.

Bobcats’ Fail to Raise to Challenge, Lose 59-53

By: Mike Esposito

Quinnipiac competed against conference-foe, Mount St. Mary’s, suffering a disappointing loss, 59-53. Courtney Kaminski and Kathleen Neyens both led the Bobcats’ with 16 points. Kaminski added 15 rebounds, registering her 2nd double-double this season. Three Mountaineers scored in double figures. Cassie Cooke had 13 points, while Mary Dunn and Lauren Howell added 12 and 11 points respectively. Despite the play of Kaminski and Neyens, the Bobcats got outrebounded for just the second time this season, in addition to being without one of their point guards to a season-ending injury.

“We didn’t lose this game because we didn’t have a point guard. We lost this game on the defensive side where the point guard doesn’t play, that was really frustrating. We had enough on offense to win the game but on defense we were just shredded and soft. To get beat off the glass like we did, was really terrible,” said head coach Tricia Fabbri.

The Bobcats jumped out to an early lead in the first half, but failed to stay consistent throughout. Mountaineers put the clamps on the Bobcat offense, without their point guards, Felicia Barron and Lisa Lebak.

“We were feeling sorry for ourselves that we didn’t have Felicia or Lisa and we just played that way. We play soft, and un-aggressive and not with a heart of a lion like we’ve played to this point,” said coach Fabbri.

The Bobcats struggled to move the ball up the court as the half progressed, making it difficult to keep up with the fast attack of Mount St. Mary’s guards, Hassanah Oliver and Cooke. Oliver and Cooke combined for 13 of the Mountaineers first 30 points.

The Bobcats made errant passes and took ill-advised shots throughout the period. This, in addition to Mount St. Mary’s dominating the boards, hampered the Bobcats in the first half. Quinnipiac failed to make a shot in the final 5:23. In fact, the Mountaineers made the last shot to take the lead at the half, 30-27. The Bobcats afforded them that opportunity after a turnover on the Mountaineers’ end of the floor.

The Mountaineers came out fast and furious in the second half, continuing to force turnovers and turn them into points. Mount St. Mary’s did a good job of earning second chance points, thanks to rebounding from their center, Leah Westbrooks. The Bobcats continued to get out-hustled into the second half, allowing Mount St. Mary’s to keep possessions alive.

The Mountaineers’ continued to slash and dash past the Bobcats. Mount St. Mary’s dominated the Bobcats late in the period, leading by as much as 11 points with 5 minutes left in the game. Just as the Bobcats’ fought back, Mount St. Mary’s would continue to put distance in their lead, due to Bobcats’ mistakes and three point shots from Cooke and Dunn.  On the night, the Mountaineers made nine  3-pointers, to the Bobcats’ 0.

Quinnipiac fought back but the clock was working against them, as they needed to make up an eight point deficit with less than two minutes left. The Bobcats brought the score to 56-51 with 16.1 seconds left, thanks to hustle plays from Courtney Kaminski and Ryann Simmons, and a few lucky bounces.  Ultimately, Mount St. Mary foul shots secured the Mountaineers’ fifth win of the season, 59-53.

“Our effort and the mental toughness was a surprise and a disappointment. We just weren’t out there with that effort and intensity that we needed. When we needed to rise to the challenge, we backed down and that’s not this team is about. We have to learn from it and turn it around quickly because we have big conference games coming up,” said coach Fabbri.

Friday afternoon, I covered the Quinnipiac Women’s Hockey team, who’ve become an exciting team to watch. This team is much improved from last year, only winning 3 of their 34 games last season. Midway through this season, the Bobcats are 8-7-6 and 3rd in the ECAC, with a great chance to possibly win the ECAC conference.

Bobcats’ own 3rd period, Get 1st Win since November 28th

By: Mike Esposito

After playing a two inconsistent periods, the Bobcats put together a solid offensive and defensive effort in the third period, scoring two goals in a 3 minute span to defeat the Dartmouth Big Green, 2-1. Kallie Flor scored the first goal of the duo, her fifth of the season. Brittany Lyons scored the winning goal for the Bobcats, the third of her career. The win improves Quinnipiac to 8-7-6 on the season and 5-3-5 in ECAC play. The Big Green drops to 6-7-2 and 4-5-1 in the ECAC, with the loss.

The Bobcats came out moving the puck well in the first period, pestering Dartmouth goalie, Mariel Lacina with 8 shots on goal. The Bobcats only failed to be in the right place at the right time, giving them opportunities to score. Quinnipiac missed opportunities to score on shot rebounds and on power plays as well.

“We were creating loose pucks but there weren’t anyone there to pick them up, so I thought we did a great job of supporting our teammates (later in the game),” said head coach Rick Seeley.

Dartmouth came out strong in the second half. The Big Green did a good job of getting shots on goal (9 in the 2nd period) and moving the puck well down the ice. On the other hand, Quinnipiac struggled to move the puck as well this period, mustering up only 5 shots on goal.  In addition, the Bobcats struggled to clear the puck out when they needed to.

With the puck in Dartmouth’s zone, Jenna Cunningham took the puck from behind the goal, wrapped the puck around the net for the score with 7:29 left in the second. Cunningham was assisted by Sarah Parsons and Sally Komarek on the goal.

Dartmouth nearly scored another goal later in the period, if not for a heads-up play by Melissa Perry to stop the gliding puck from crossing the goal line, as Victoria Vigilanti was sprawled out, saving the previous shot.

In the third period, Dartmouth and Quinnipiac both came out fighting. Early in the period, the Big Green continued to attack the Bobcats as they had in the 2nd, pestering Vigilanti with a total of 9 shots. The freshman goaltender came up with clutch saves, as well as her fellow defensemen, who cleared the puck out of the Big Green zone. Vigilanti finished with 20 saves.

“We just been caught in a funk, and I think we just finally woke up. We needed a period like that. Everyone feels great now and I think they’re ready to make that consistent,” said coach Seeley.

On the Bobcats’ end of the ice, they took the fight to Dartmouth, attacking Lacina again this period with a barrage of shots (13). A shot finally went Quinnipiac’s way, when senior Kallie Flor caught the deflection of Janine Duffy’s shot and slapped it past Lacina to knot the game up at 1, with 7:27 left in the game.

Nearly two and a half minutes later, Chelsea Illchuk took a slapshot, which was deflected by Lacina. Freshman Brittany Lyons caught the deflection and pushed it past the unsuspecting Lacina to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead, with 5:02 to play.

With 1:35 left, the Big Green pulled their goalie in an attempt to tie the game. Dartmouth’s effort failed as the Bobcats’ won their first game in their past five contests. The win moves the Bobcats to third in the ECAC standings.

“We didn’t play close to our best hockey. We started to pick it up in the last five minutes of the second period. I thought we handed them a goal (in the second period) and the game was ours to take. That was one of the best periods of the year,” said Seeley.

The Bobcats’ will face a daunting task when they face the 5th ranked Harvard Crimson, Jan. 9th at 4:00 p.m. The Crimson is 5th in the most recent USCHO Women’s D-I Hockey poll.

“Our team really believes we can beat them and finishing a game like this really gave us that positive feeling we needed, heading into tomorrow. They’ve convinced themselves they’re going to be ready,” said Seeley.

Only about an hour ago, I put the finishing touches on an article I wrote about the USA Women’s Hockey team coming to my hometown, Hamden, Connecticut to face an all-star team assembled of the best players in the ECAC conference. Quinnipiac’s own women’s hockey star, Janine Duffy, played with the All-Stars, who lost to the mighty U.S., 8-2.

USA Women’s Hockey v. ECAC All-Stars draws Record Crowd

By: Mike Esposito

In front of the largest Women’s hockey crowd in New England history, the USA Women’s team defeated the ECAC All-Star team, 8-2, at Hamden’s TD Bank Sports Center. Prior to the game, Quinnipiac’s own Janine Duffy was part of the ceremonial puck drop, alongside the Connecticut Polar Bears, and the Hamden High Girl’s Hockey team. The U.S. Team boosted their record to 4-3 with the win, with three games remaining before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Connecticut’s Caitlin Cahow (Branford, Conn.) contributed two goals in the win, as well as two from each of her teammates Natalie Darwitz (Eagan, Minn.) and Jocelyn Lamourex (Grand Forks, N.D.).

“I know for Janine, it was the thrill of a lifetime, to be able to say ‘I was on the ice with the U.S. Olympic team’.  I know for her, the Polar Bears, and Hamden High School, it was a lifelong memory”, said Quinnipiac Athletic Director, Jack McDonald.

United States got onto the scoreboard first, :21 into the game, thanks to Amanda Ruggiero’s slap shot from the right faceoff circle past ECAC goalie Sonja van der Bliek.

U.S.’s Hilary Knight (Hanover, N.H.) extended the lead to 2-0, with her first goal at 4:56. Cahow added her first of the afternoon at 12:32, giving U.S. a 3-0 lead after one period of play.

“This was an exciting day for women’s hockey and Quinnipiac University. I thought Janine, and her teammates, did an exceptional job representing ECAC Hockey, competing well with the Olympians,” said Quinnipiac Women’s Hockey head coach, Rick Seeley.

In the second period, Lamourex and Cahow each added a goal for USA. to give them a 5-0 lead.

The ECAC All-Stars responded with back-to- back goals past U.S. goalie, Molly Schaus (Natick, Mass.). Thanks to Yale’s Bray Ketchum and Harvard’s Anna McDonald, the All-Stars cut U.S.A’s lead to 5-2 with less than four minutes left in the second period. USA then responded with a goal from Darwitz with just  :10 left in the period.

U.S. added two more goals in the third period, Darwitz and Lamourex’s second goals, both coming with a: 20 span , to cap off an 8-2 win.

Despite the 8-2 loss, one ECAC All-Star was thankful for the once in a lifetime experience.

“It was a lot of fun. It was great to play alongside some of the best players in the ECAC and to see how progressed the Olympic hockey team is. It was very memorable,” said Duffy.

“It was a great statement for Quinnipiac Women’s ice hockey and Quinnipiac athletics and Quinnipiac University to have almost 4,000 people in the TD Bank, the third largest crowd of any sport in the building and the largest women’s hockey crowd in New England history,” said McDonald.

Let me know what you think, as well as if you think this is a good idea! Don’t be afraid to comment!

Harvard- The Crimson will look to bounce back into the win column after falling to Quinnipiac last weekend, 1-0, and tying Princeton, 3-3. At 8-4-3 overall and 6-4-1 in the ECAC, Harvard can count recent wins against No. 2 Minnesota and No. 9 Connecticut. Kate Buesser leads the Crimson with a team high 11 assists along with six goals for 17 points. Buesser leads the ECAC in points during league games with 15 of her points including 10 of her 11 assists coming against conference opponents. Jillian Dempsey has recorded 13 points for the Crimson off of seven goals and six assists. Senior Christina Kessler will be back in goal after stopping 15 shots to earn the shutout in a 9-0 win for Canada’s National Women’s U-22 Team over Switzerland in the gold medal game of the 2010 MLP Cup. Kessler holds an 8-3-2 record for the Crimson this season as well as a .950 save percentage and 1.23 goals against average. Kessler leads all ECAC goaltenders and is third among all goaltenders in the nation.