When the Bobcats took the field for their first game in the month of April, there was a very different feeling in the air. The temperature was rising and the sky was blue as spring had finally arrived at the Mount Carmel campus. With the change in the seasons, the women’s lacrosse team went through a transformation of their own as they had their most dominant performance of the year with a 20-11 victory over LIU Brooklyn for their first home win of the season.
The month of March was not kind to Quinnipiac. It had a record of 3-6 in the month and played seven of its nine games on the road. With the brutally long winter finally behind them, the Bobcats entered their conference season motivated to start their season anew. They came out of the gate on fire. Liane Toomey put Quinnipiac on the board first when she scored an unassisted goal just over two minutes into the game. Aileen Carey followed seconds later with a goal of her own to make it a 2-0 game. By the time LIU Brooklyn scored its first goal Quinnipiac already had six.
“We haven’t always gotten off to a good start some games we’ve done it very well and other games we haven’t,” Quinnipiac head coach Danie Caro said. “Today we tried to put the focus on the process of ball quickly moving the people quickly playing at speed and it paid off for us today.”
As the half wore on, the Bobcats cooled down. LIU Brooklyn cut the Quinnipiac lead to four, but the Bobcats responded when Sarah Allen took over. Allen scored her third goal of the half at the 1:30 mark and then assisted a goal by Liane Toomey, who closed the half the same way she started with just 30 seconds to play. After the break, Quinnipiac regained its fire and got off to another hot start. The Bobcats scored five straight goals in the first 10 minutes to extend their lead to 11 and bury the Blackbirds for good. When the game ended, Quinnipiac had earned its first home win of the season.
Quinnipiac’s all-time assist leader, Sarah Allen, had a tremendous day with a very balanced eight points. She added five assists to her school record to go along with four goals.
“Sarah’s always been an important player not only in putting up points in terms of being able to score and assisting on other players scoring, but she really sets the tone for our offense,” Caro said. “She’s the quote unquote quarterback for our offense and she does a really good job setting the tempo and getting everybody settled and getting everybody on the same page so we can attack as a unit.”
Meanwhile, Kyra Ochwat had a career day with six points on four goals and two assists. Toomey and Phoebe LaPlante also had big days with five points each.
With this win the Bobcats are once again .500 in conference play. It also advances their record against the Blackbirds to 11-0 all time.
“They can go as far as they want. They have the talent to beat any team that they play,” Caro said. “Whether they show up on game day is always a question mark for us but this should be a good confidence builder moving on.”
Quinnipiac will take on Wagner on Sunday.
