Women’s ice hockey hosts Cornell at 4 PM

The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team looks to build off of last night’s 1-1 tie against the Colgate Raiders when they host the nationally ranked Cornell Big Red this afternoon at 4 p.m. in Hamden. Jamie Palatini and Ross Montolio will be on the call, with the broadcast set to start on the hockey stream at approximately 3:55 p.m.

Women’s Hockey on the air

You can catch the Bobcats Women’s Ice Hockey team take on the Colgate Raiders tonight at 7:00 p.m.  Corey Hersch and Kyle Brennan will be on the call on the hockey stream.

WQAQ Athlete of the Week: Heather Hughes

By Tom Butto

This week’s WQAQ Athlete of the Week honor goes to Quinnipiac University women’s ice hockey freshman Heather Hughes (Stoufville, Ontario).

Quinnipiac women's ice hockey freshman Heather Hughes

Hughes had a career game on Saturday night with her first collegiate hat trick on her way to four points against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  She scored Quinnipiac’s second, third, and fifth goals of the game as well as assisting on the fourth as the Bobcats defeated RPI 6-1.  With her performance, Hughes now leads the team in goals and points.

The Bobcats women’s hockey team had a banner weekend in its own right by defeating Union 3-0 in addition to Saturday’s victory.  They will now head on a four game road trip beginning this weekend with Harvard and Dartmouth.

Bobcats open ECAC play with 3-0 win over Union

by Brian Farrell

Tonight the Bobcats began their 2009-2010 ECAC conference schedule with a 3-0 shutout over rival Union. Freshman Victoria Vigilanti recorded the win for the Bobcats tonight with just five saves, while Union’s freshman Alana Marcinko had 26 saves in the loss. Last season the Quinnipiac finished in second to last place in the division while Union finished in last place. This was a big game for the Bobcats, as they are still looking to prove themselves after a tough weekend sweep last weekend at the hands of Niagara.

 

Quinnipiac was first on the board this evening. Junior Kelley Davies took the feed from  defenders Jordan Elkins and Bethany Dymarczyk to give the Bobcats a lead that they would never give up. Kelley Davies moved in on Union’s Alana Marcinko practically untouched as she sent the puck low blocker side to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. This season, Quinnipiac has had little trouble scoring goals in the first period as they have nine goals on the season in the first period, but the Bobcats have scored just nine goals in the second and third period combined. On a similar note, Quinnipiac has done a nice job giving up just one goal in that first period, but once again with disappointing second and third periods as Quinnipiac has given up ten goals in those two periods.

 

After a dominating first period, in which Union was outshot 13-2 and in which the Bobcats seemed to completely control the puck, Quinnipiac continued their dominance of the Dutchwomen. Just 8:23 into that second period, senior captain Kallie Flor pocketed her first goal of the season as she took a pass from her senior line mate Janine Duffy who recorded her first assist. On a three-on-two, Quinnipiac had Kate Wheeler, Janine Duffy, and Kallie Flor streaking in on Marcinko. On the initial shot, Flor stayed back in the slot and waited for Duffy to take the rebound who fed it to Flor for her first goal of the season and for the 2-0 lead.

 

But Flor was not done on the night. This time the Bobcats were shorthanded as she took another pass from Duffy to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead at the 14:38 mark of the second period. During the entire penalty kill Quinnipiac was putting constant pressure on Union and eventually it proved to be too much, as Flor stuffed home her second goal on the evening. Off the faceoff, Duffy gained possession and sent her second assist to Flor who tried to wrist one home on Marcinko. Flor’s first attempt was blocked by Marcinko, but Flor took the rebound and sent it over the left pad of the Union goaltender. After the game Kallie Flor spoke to what it feels like to get those two goals out of the way. “Hopefully the goals will start to come a little bit more often now, especially if our line keeps flying like it was tonight,” Flor said.

 

At the end of the second period Coach Rick Seeley opted to change goaltenders and replaced Victoria Vigilanti, who recorded five saves in her two periods, with Amanda Nagel, who recorded four saves in her one period of play. QU’s goaltenders didn’t have too much action tonight as the defense continues to improve.  After the game Coach Seeley talked a little about this improvement. “I thought our defense did a much better job stepping up in the third period and not allowing them to attack our zone with speed,” Seeley said.

Women’s Hockey Today

After beating Union last night, the Bobcats Women’s Hockey team will take on the RPI Engineers at 4:00 p.m.  You can hear that game on the WQAQ Hockey stream, with Corey Hersch and Jeremy Schilling on the call.

Bobcats in action all day today

We bring to you two games to  be broadcast on the Bobcats Sports Network presented by WQAQ today.  First, at 3:00 p.m., catch Men’s Soccer against Long Island University.  That game can be heard on the soccer stream, with Corey Hersch and Kyle Brennan on the call.  Later tonight, at 7:00 p.m., Women’s Hockey will be taking on the Niagra Purple Eagles.  Jamie Palatini and Brian Farrell will bring you all the action on the hockey stream.

Postgame interview audio now available

If you want to hear the post game audio from any Quinnipiac home games, just head to the Quinnipiac Athletics website, click on the “Photos and New Media” tab at the top of the page, and click on the appropriate sport. Recent uploads include interviews with;

Men’s soccer head coach Eric Da Costa and goalkeeper Freddy Hall following their 3-0 win over St. Francis (PA) this weekend.

Women’s ice hockey head coach Rick Seeley after their 4-1 season opening win against Sacred Heart

Coach Dave Clarke of the women’s soccer team discussing his team’s 1-0 double OT win over Bryant on Sunday Afternoon.

You can also subscribe to Quinnipiac athletics on iTunes and find these postgame interviews there as well.

- Jamie Palatini

Women’s Ice Hockey Home Opener at 2 PM

Quinnipiac’s women’s ice hockey team opens up their season tomorrow when they host the Sacred Heart Pioneers at the TD Bank Sports Center at 2 p.m. in Hamden. Jamie Palatini will provide the play-by-play and Brian Farrell will add color commentary. The game can be heard live on the WQAQ hockey stream, and the broadcast is scheduled to begin at 1:55 p.m. ET.

Raiders spoil Senior Day, Bobcats lose 4-1

By Jamie Palatini

Three second period goals made the difference Saturday afternoon as the Colgate Raiders defeated the Quinnipiac Bobcats’ women’s ice hockey team  4-1 in Hamden on Senior Day. With the win, Colgate improves to 16-9-3 overall, and 10-4-3 in ECAC Hockey. The loss drops Quinnipiac to 3-22-5 (2-11-5 ECAC).

Saturday’s loss comes on the heels of Friday night’s 4-4 tie against Cornell, arguably one of the team’s best games of the season. When asked about the two games this weekend, Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley was less than impressed with their performance in the latter contest.

“I don’t think there’s any comparison,” Seeley said. “I thought we came out in the first period and played hard…but I thought we went to sleep in the second, and we just didn’t have that focus or intensity.”

Colgate broke the tie at the 2:32 mark of the second period. The Bobcats tried to clear the puck out of their zone, but Colgate’s Jacquie Colborne tipped the clearing attempt to teammate Marissa Dombovy. The junior forward collected the puck in the slot, and put a wrist shot through Quinnipiac goaltender Tia Wishart’s legs for her seventh goal of the season to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Nearly halfway through the period, Colgate doubled their lead. Senior defenseman Clancy Todd‘s shot from the point was deftly deflected by junior Beth Rotenberg past Wishart to make it a 2-0 advantage in favor of the Raiders halfway through the game.

With just seven seconds left in the second stanza, they added on to their lead. Junior forward Katie Stewart stole the puck from a Bobcat player along the near boards, and moved in all alone in Wishart. Her shot flew over the left shoulder of Wishart for her 13th goal of the season, and Colgate had a 3-0 lead heading into the second intermission.

Some nifty passing from the Raiders led to their fourth goal. While on a 5-on-3 power play, two quick passes led to a one-timer from Marissa Dombovy who scored her second goal of the game to make it 4-0 Colgate.

Midway through the third, senior forward Elyse Cole erased any possibilities of a shutout. Cole, who is the program’s all-time leader in goals, took a wrist shot from the point that beat Colgate goaltender Kimberly Sass for the Bobcats’ lone goal. Over her four-year career at Quinnipiac, Cole has amassed 43 goals and 28 assists with four games still remaining on the Bobcats’ schedule.

The Bobcats are losing five seniors at the end of this season: senior captain Trudy Reyns, Antoinette Maldonado, Danielle Alexieff, Erika Bolognino and the aforementioned Cole. Although this is only his first year at Quinnipiac, Seeley understands the impact these players had on the team.

“When they’re at their best, they’re great,” Seeley said. “Obviously, we’re going to miss Trudy’s leadership and Elyse’s scoring. [Maldonado] and [Alexieff] have really come together in the second half, so they’re all going to be missed. We’re bringing in some good players, but it’s always hard to replace the seniors.”

But Seeley knows that he has players ready to take over the reins and provide senior leadership next year, most notably current juniors Kallie Flor and Janine Duffy, who combined for three goals in Friday’s game.

“Well there’s no question, as Flor and Duffy go, so goes the team,” Seeley said. “Our goal is to get them a little more consistent, because when they’re playing their best they’re outstanding players…I think those are the two key players for next year.”

The Bobcats have four games remaining on the schedule, all of them on the road. The first two are up in the North Country against current ECAC leader St. Lawrence and Seeley’s former Clarkson team. Despite the poor record and playoff chances essentially out of reach, the Bobcats’ coach is optimistic heading into the final two weeks of the season.

“The great thing about this team is that they’re resilient,” Seeley said. “The record’s not that great, but we know we’re taking strides in the right direction, so the attitude is still great.”

Click here to view the box score from this game.

QU tripleheader on sports stream

By Andrew Fletcher

We will have three games on our sports stream this afternoon, so be sure to tune in if you’re around.

First, we have Andrew Gabel, Jon Leach and Andrew Gau bringing you women’s basketball against Bryant at noon.

Then we have the men taking their shots against Bryant, with Tom Butto, Jay Slater and Jeremy Schilling on the call.  The tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.

At 4, the Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s basketball team will take on Colgate.  Dan Coleman, Andrew Gau and Corey Hersch will be on hand.