After five consecutive losses against some of the top teams in country, the Quinnipiac field hockey team made a strong showing against the University of Rhode Island, a 1-0 victory. “This is my tenth season here, and every season we start off this way. We always start off slow, but we always learn from it,” Head Coach Becca Kohli said. “We started off our season playing some of the highest level teams and are now prepared for the upcoming games.”

Quinnipiac had a solid defense throughout the entire game and as a result had several scoring chances early on. Senior Meredith Klein scored the game winning goal for the ‘Cats, and her first goal of the season, off a penalty corner with 12:59 completed in the first half. The goal was assisted by junior Jillian Holod. “We really stepped up to the ball today and played amazing and I’m really proud us for it,” said junior co-captain Amy Cunniff.

The Bobcats continued to hold a strong defense and stepped to the ball, resulting in a 12-1 shot lead at the break. At the end of the game the Bobcats out shot URI 23-1 and had an 11-1 lead in penalty corners. Quinnipiac junior goalie Erin Mckay did not have to make a save to obtain her first shutout of the year. With less then five minutes to play it seemed Meredith Klein was going to get her second goal of the season and Quinnipiac was going to take a 2-0 lead, but Klein’s shot off a penalty corner was waved off. “This was our first grass game this season, and we played really well, and stayed focused,” Kihli said. “We needed to dominate and we did.”

The team knows there is some pressure to make it to the NCAA tournament again this year and they are working towards that, however they all know they have to take the season a game at a time. “We will worry about it when it comes, we still have a long way to go, and we just have to take it day by day but I think we are headed in the right direction,” senior co-captain Chelsea Osbrey said. “We played some of the top teams already and now know what we have ahead of us.”