Head coach Dave Clarke called them “resilient,” and that is just what the Quinnipiac women’s soccer team proved to be on Saturday against Monmouth at the QU Soccer Field.
Freshman forward Nadya Gill scored the game-winning goal with only 4:25 left in the second overtime.
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“There is no way you can prepare to score a goal like that other than visualize it, but it felt good knowing that our team worked so hard because we’ve been having a hard time finishing… especially in overtime,” Gill said. “It felt good to win as a team collectively, we all worked hard and I think we really deserved it.”
Gill might have stolen the spotlight of the game, but the Bobcats’ seven seniors got their well-deserved recognition before the start of the game during the Senior Day celebration. Kristina Bronkowski, Ashley Wendland, Jessica Jankowski, Amanda Barroca, Jenny Mears, Natalia Grodzki and Nicole Eriksen were all honored.
Senior goalie Natalia Grodzki expressed her sadness in graduating, but offered some advice to all her teammates who will be returning next year.
“[My advice] would be not to take anything for granted,” Grodzki said. “I remember my freshman year and we all sat here and we all contributed. We said ‘we are going to be good for the next three years’ and then obviously the last two years we weren’t that good and you wish you could go back and just experience more of freshman year and just live it all again.”
Monmouth scored the first goal 25 minutes into the first half, taking a 1-0 lead.
Quinnipiac’s Jess Gargan came back with strong intensity, though, and tied the game 1-1 with 15 minutes left in the first half.
“They didn’t have a lot of good shots on us, I think a lot of it was defenders getting in the way and midfielders coming back,” Grodzki said. “They did get shots off us but a lot of them were blocked or not even close. We know that we are going to get our chances offensively. We stay positive and wait for our turn.”
Nicole Erikson scored at the beginning of the second half, putting Quinnipiac in the lead 2-1.
Monmouth’s Alexis McTamney scored with 15:16 remaining in the game, though. Regulation ended in a 2-2 tie.
Six minutes in the second 10-minute overtime stanza, Gill scored the winning goal to give the Bobcats a 3-2 win.
Quinnipiac moves to 6-6 with the win. The Bobcats are back in action on Oct. 14 vs. Manhattan.