O’Connor Continues Good Play, Team Struggles

O’Connor Continues Good Play, Team Struggles
By Jeremy Schilling

In the words of Head Coach John O’Connor: You can’t win with one good scorer. And that’s exactly what the Quinnipiac Bobcats Golf team is experiencing right now.

The Bobcats continued their fall season with a 6^th place finish out of the 8 teams that participated in the Dartmouth Invitational this past weekend. The Bobcats shot a 640 for the 2-day event, a full 41 shots behind event winner Dartmouth. The Bobcats were also 100 over par, compared to Dartmouth which was only 31 over par.

Individually, Ian O’Connor led the Bobcats with a 2-day total of 152 that placed him 7^th. Jason Loranger shot a total of 158 to finish 17^th. Tying for 21^st was Ryerson Stinson with a 36-hole total of 160. He was followed by Brady Giroux with 171, and Ben Cook with 177.

Coach O’Connor said, “We did not play well. Ian O’Connor came in 7th overall but the rest of the team shot in the 80s and you can’t win with one good scorer. Jason Loranger and Brady Giroux are showing signs of brilliance but can’t put it all together. I’ve added Ryan Reynolds from Hamden to my roster and he’s developing into a solid player but was not ready for Dartmouth. Ryerson Stinson is a New Hampshire boy and his home course is Hanover Country Club but had trouble all weekend and needed to save his scores with some fine up and downs from some very bad spots. Ben Cook was a last minute fill-in and looked to be ready during the practice round but in the end could not deal with the slick greens and rough terrain.”

The Bobcats resume their schedule with the McDonald Cup October 6^th and 7^th at the Yale Golf Club in New Haven.

Bobcats Finish 16th at RU – O’Connor gets double reward

Bobcats Finish 16^th at RU – O’Connor gets double reward
By Jeremy Schilling

I’m sure if you asked Sophmore Ian O’Connor how he felt Sunday night after he shot 68, he was probably a very happy camper. After Wednesday, he was a really happy camper.

The Quinnipiac University Bobcats golf team began their fall 2007 season with a disappointing team effort of 16^th in the Rutgers University Invitational. But the overriding headline, and focus, has to be on O’Connor. He was mired down the individual leaderboard in a tie for 24^th after opening up with 74 and 75 in the first two rounds. However, on that final day, he shot that 68 to vault him up into a tie for 4^th, low medalist for the final day, and being able to tell his grandchildren he shot “one of the historically great rounds in Quinnipiac history” according to quinnipiacbobcats.com. In addition, that final round 68, which included five birdies, tied for lowest round of any of the 91 players in the event. Additionally, he was named NEC Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week, one of the most prestigious accomplishments you can ask for when you are a NEC golfer.

Unfortunately, the team didn’t play so well, finishing in a tie for 16^th out of the 18 that entered. Individually, O’Connor led the way, followed by Charlie Niland who shot rounds of 83, 76 and 79 for the three-round event. Next were Jason Loranger who had 77, 83, and 79, Andy Feehan with 79, 78, 83, and Ryerson Stinson who shot rounds of 87, 94, and 79.

Coach John O’Connor, sounding very disappointed with his group, said afterward, “The Rutgers event was a tremendous challenge for our golf team. Unfortunately the only golfer to step up was Ian O’Connor. The other guys did not handle the easy course at Rutgers. There was nothing hard about the course. The fairways, roughs and greens were very green and soft and posed no challenge. The course was not long and the greens were not protected by bunkers, trees or water. Everyone should have scored low. This week is a new week and Hanover CC poses a totally different challenge and could be a problem for our team.”

And this weekend brings us to the Dartmouth Invitational up in New Hampshire, where the Bobcats will look to return to the glory of last fall and hope that Ian O’Connor’s good playing continues.

Bobcats Heading to Jersey to Start Fall 2007 Season

Bobcats Heading to Jersey to Start Fall 2007 Season
By Jeremy Schilling

They’ve gone to the beach. They’ve kept cool in the pool. They’ve practiced. And now the youthful influx that will hopefully guide Quinnipiac University Golf to bigger and better things in 2007, now has a schedule to post on the wall.

According to the tentative schedule (Coach John O’Connor tells WQAQ that “I still hope to get into other events but this might be it for now.”) released on www.quinnipiacbobcats.com, the season begins September 14^th with the 2-day Rutgers University Invitational at the Rutgers University Golf Course in Piscataway, New Jersey.. Having played the course a couple times, I can tell you the players will be challenged on a quality golf course that will be sure to bring out the best in them. That tournament has a 9:00 a.m. start.

Seven days later the Bobcats will head to Hanover, New Hampshire to the Hanover Country Club for the Dartmouth Invitational. The team will look to improve on their 5th place finish in this tournament last season. Play starts at 9:00 a.m. for both days of the tournament.

On October 6th, the team will make the short trip to the Yale Golf Club in New Haven to compete in The McDonald Cup. The Bobcats will most certainly look to improve on their 11^th place finish in 2006. For both days of the competition, the first players will be teeing off at 8:00 a. m.

Five days later the Bobcats will head out to a place where Tiger Woods enjoyed his weeklong visit in 2002, Bethpage State Park in Bethpage, New York, for the Hofstra Invitational. However, unlike to Tiger’s United States Open victory that occurred on the now famous Black Course, the Bobcats and all the other participants will be playing the Red Course. Lasting two days, October 12^th and 13^th, the first tee times occur at 9:00 a. m.

And to wrap up the fall season, the Bobcats will head to Brewster, Mass, for the New England Championship at The Captains Golf Course on October 22^nd for a two-day event that begins both days at 9:00 a.m. Last year, the Bobcats finished 13^th after the final day was wiped out by rain.

If any more events get added, we will pass them along to you, but as of right now it appears that by the time the leaves start falling and Bud Fisher enters his goal inside of the TD Banknorth Sports Center, the Quinnipiac Bobcats Golf team will have completed their fall season.

Get your popcorn here

Dear fellow blog readers,

I would like to say thank you to all my family and friends who read this blog, along with fellow Quinnipiac students who have as well. I would also like to thank WQAQ Sports Department Directors Seth Rothman and Steve Tisi for putting this website together.

Many of you have asked me where you can find the “Popcorn Blog” I tend to talk a lot about. Well, because it has nothing to do with golf, it’s not on this page. So to save you time from having to delve deeply into the pages about basketball and hockey (even though you should check them out – there’s some fantastic articles there) here is the link to the so-called “Popcorn blog”:

http://wqaqsports.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/teams-experiences-thrill-in-the-playoffs/

While I’m at it, let me link you to the two blogs I wrote about the opening of the TD Banknorth Sports Center in January:

http://wqaqsports.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/bobcats-reporter-blend-into-new-habitat (Day 1)

http://wqaqsports.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/second-day-just-as-good-as-first-at-the-sports-center/ (Day 2)

Enjoy,
Jeremy Schilling

Bobcats Have the Summer to Reflect on Disappointing Spring Season

Bobcats Have the Summer to Reflect on Disappointing Spring Season
By Jeremy Schilling

“The golf team worked extremely hard and stands to be the favorite to place first in the NEC Championship tournament in May 2007.” Those were the words of Quinnipiac Bobcats Head Coach John O’Connor at the conclusion of the 2007 fall golf season. Unfortunately for the team, with one exception, their stellar play of the fall failed to transfer over to the spring. And even as the weather warmed up, the shots did not, culminating in a finish in the NEC Championships that they’d rather forget about. Head Coach John O’Connor and his players now have over 100 days to think about what they need to do to return to the strong form with which they started off the 2006-2007 school year.

Individually, one Bobcat can look back at the spring and have a big ol’ smile: Steve Velardi. His victory at the rain-shortened Northeast Invitational on April 27^th was the lone victory of any kind for the Bobcats, and one that he’ll look back on with happy thoughts now that he is a Quinnipiac alum.

In a season hampered at the start by cold weather, there weren’t many bright spots. Starting with the spring opener at Monmouth, the Bobcats finished 8^th, 10^th, 13^th, 10^th, 5^th, 4^th, and finally 8^th in the NEC Conference Championship to close out the season.

On the bright side, as the coach and players look towards the fall, they can take solace in the fact that they have a relatively young team that seems loaded with talent. Only Velardi graduated, and a majority of the team will be sophomores and juniors.

Coach O’Connor, in his analysis of the spring said, “We need to focus on our short game and not worry about bombing the ball for distance and inevitably finding your ball in the woods or worse, the fairway traps. The kids are young and learned a great deal from this experience. Steve Velardi will be missed next year but we have a great group of kids coming back.”

It will be interesting to see come September how well this team rebounds from the adversity of the spring and if the short games Coach talked about have indeed improved.

A Letter from the Editors

The WQAQ Sports Blog was an idea generated by the WQAQ Sports Department over the winter break between the fall and spring semesters this year.

We never thought it would get this big.

Since January 23, 2007, the day we started the blog, it has recieved just over 2,900 views from you, our loyal readers.

So for that, we say thank you.

Whether you are a parent of our fine Quinnipiac athletes, a parent of our fantastic WQAQ Sports Department staff that make up our writers, or a fan of Quinnipiac Athletics, thank you for reading all semester.

From the opening of the TD Banknorth Sports Center, to the firing of Joe DeSantis, to the hockey team’s run to the ECAC Hockey Championship Game, to the hiring of Tom Moore, and even through the baseball team’s trip to the NEC Tournament, this has been a truly historic semester for Quinnipiac Athletics, and we are truly glad we could bring it to you on this page.

So for the summer, we say adieu. But please know that we will be back in the fall. We hope to have have periodic articles over the summer, but WQAQ Sports will continue to endeavor to bring you the best Quinnipiac Sports coverage on the net when we return in the fall semester.

So until then, have a fantastic summer!

Sincerely,

Seth Rothman and Steve Tisi
WQAQ Sports Directors

Quinnipiac Golf Fails to Meet Academic Performance Score

Quinnipiac Golf Fails to Meet Academic Performance Score
By Jeremy Schilling

As first reported in the New Haven Register, the NCAA released its third ever report on academic performance among its athletes. Overall, most Division 1 schools did very well on the test. According to the NCAA, they said in their press release that “the third year of Academic Progress Rate [APR] data released May 2…show improvement in almost all sports, including football and baseball, two sports that in the past posted rates causing some concern among the membership.”

Two Quinnipiac programs, however, did not meet the minimum score of 925. Those programs are basketball, with a score of 910, and golf, with a score of 900. Responding to this issue, Chuck Menke, director of Athletic Communications for Quinnipiac, said, “All of our student-athletes and teams – including the men’s golf team – will continue to strive to reach or maintain such high standards in the classroom. Quinnipiac University remains committed to the total development of our student-athletes.”

A previous press release from Quinnipiac Athletics itself was quick to point out that four Quinnipiac teams were honored for having scores in the top 10 percent of their respective sports. To achieve this honor, the sport needs an APR score between 975 and a perfect 1,000. Those sports were baseball, field hockey, men’s indoor track and men’s outdoor track.

Speaking specifically for golf, Bobcats Head Coach John O’Connor said, “The APR data shows we have a severe situation that was due in large part to the golf teams in the past at Quinnipiac.”

Even though the NCAA indicated that overall penalties have dropped over the first three years of this program, there are still penalties to be assessed. According to the Register, the penalties assessed to the school for not meeting the minimum score range from public warning, reduced practice time for the individual sport, reduction in number of scholarships available to that sport, and, ultimately, banishment from postseason play for that sport.

O’Connor says he will make sure none of those penalties occur. “I will, however, see to it that the team continues to focus on the classroom and I will make sure the recruits understand that Quinnipiac is serious about this and I have every reason to believe the numbers will reflect how well the current team has done this year.”

Bobcats Finish 8th at NEC Championship to finish Spring Season

Bobcats Finish 8^th at NEC Championship to finish Spring Season>
By Jeremy Schilling

The Quinnipiac University Bobcats Golf team completed the 2007 spring season with a disappointing 8^th place finish at the NEC Conference Championship. Monmouth beat the other 10 NEC Conference teams (in order of finish: St. Francis–PA, Central Connecticut State University, Long Island University, Sacred Heart, Robert Morris, Mount St. Mary’s, QU, Farleigh Dickinson, Wagner and St. Francis–NY) with a score of 902, securing a one shot victory over St. Francis–PA. Quinnipiac’s three-day team score of 935 fell 32 shots short of the victors’.

Individually, Patrick Kelly of LIU won with scores of 72-71-74 for a 54-hole total of one over par 217 to beat Anthony Campanile of Monmouth by one stroke. For Quinnipiac, Ian O’Connor led with a 3-day total of 227 (+11), which left him in a tie for 11^th place overall. He was followed by Steve Velardi with 228, Brady Giroux with 240, and Eric Snow with 241.

Head Coach John O’Connor said, “I’m disappointed in the way the spring season went and particularly the way the kids played in the conference tournament. The course at Sea Trail was very short but presented a few obstacles that the kids could not overcome.” He looks towards next fall to end that disappointment, with return to the strong play the Bobcats exhibited in the fall of 2006.

Bobcats Play Two, Get Two Top-Five Finishes, Plus a Winner

Bobcats Play Two, Get Two Top-Five Finishes, Plus a Winner
By Jeremy Schilling

As bathing suits returned to the quad last week, so did the Quinnipiac University golf team, as they had two top-five finishes in events played three days apart. They started off their week on Tuesday, April 24 with the St. Peter’s Invitational at the Neshanik Valley Golf Club, in Neshanik, NJ, where they came out 5^th. The Bobcats shot a team score of 326, 15 shots behind winner Rider University. In the individual portion of the competition, another Rider player was victorious, with Tyler Brewington shooting a 71 to take the title.

Individually for QU, Brady Giroux shot a 75 and finished in a tie for second among all the players in the tournament. He was followed by Ian O’Connor with 79, Ben Cook with 85, Jason Loranger with 87, and Kyle Chumas with 92.

Just three days later the Bobcats went up to the Green Valley Country Club in Portsmouth, Rhode Island to compete in the Northeast Invitational. The team came out fourth, but Steve Velardi won the individual portion of the competition. However, let’s begin with the team portion, where one of the most unusual things in college golf occurred: a round was shortened to nine holes. The first round, held on April 27^th, was cut short because of rain, so only the first 9 holes played counted. On the second day, on April 28^th, however, everything went on as planned, and a full 18 holes were played. The end result: 29 holes decided the winner. In the end, the University of Rhode Island won the team event with a 29-hole score of 446. The Bobcats came in 4^th, but only seven strokes back, shooting a 453.

Individually, Steve Velardi led everyone, shooting 35 on day one and 72 on day two for a total of one-over-par 101, one stroke better than five others. One of those five was the Bobcats’ own Eric Snow. For the Bobcats, he was followed by Ian O’Connor with 118, Ben Cook with 120, and Kyle Chumas with 126.

Head Coach John O’Connor was unavailable for comment this week, but for good reason, as the Bobcats left earlier this week for the NEC Conference Championships in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to be held May 4-7. Even though the Sea Trail golf course is sure to be a challenging course for all the teams involved, the Bobcats definitely seem to be peaking at the right time.

Bobcats Rack Up Another 10th Place Finish

Bobcats Rack Up Another 10^th Place Finish
By Jeremy Schilling

For the second time in the 2007 Spring season, the Quinnipiac University Bobcats golf team finished 10^th in a tournament, this time at the Mount St. Mary’s Invitational held April 20-21. The Bobcats’ 54-hole score was a 927, 46 strokes back of winner Longwood University, who had a team score of 881. Overall in the individual portion of the tournament, the winner again came from the Longwood University team, with Adam Webb taking the title with a 3-round total of 218.

Individually for QU, Steve Velardi led all with a 54-hole score of 222, which put him in a tie for 6^th place overall. He was followed by Ian O’Connor, Eric Snow and Brady Giroux, who all had 235, and Ben Cook who had 254.

“It was a great weekend with some fine performances by Steve Velardi and Brady Giroux. We finally played golf without our winter gear on and this will prepare us for the NEC championship in two weeks. All teams play in Myrtle Beach for the championship and the winner continues on to the NCAA regional,” said Head Coach John O’Connor.

That preparation continues Tuesday, April 24 with the St. Peter’s Invitational at the Neshanik Valley GC, in Neshanik, NJ.