Siena’s Madison Vazquez’s late goal in the first half sealed the women’s soccer season as this last regular season match-up was a must win in order to move onto the MAAC tournament.

“We didn’t play our best as a whole,” head coach Dave Clark said. “In terms of how we started the first and second half we did well, but then lost our way and an experienced team took advantage to hold on to the win.”

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The Bobcats were struggling to find their own pace as Siena set the tone early with team physicality and high pressure. Freshman forward Nadya Gill was denied a prime scoring chance early in the first half when she appeared to be fouled but the officials signaled it to be a clean play leaving Quinnipiac supporters in disbelief.

Both teams were battling hard in a tight match where they were able to have their fair share of chances with Siena having a total of sixteen shots compared to Quinnipiac’s twelve. With soaking conditions and high winds, Quinnipiac struggled to find the back of net in both halves in a tough shutout loss.

“We needed to take the chances that came,” Clark said.

In the 36th minute, Vasquez capitalized on a cross from Siena midfielder Michelle Yanniello to make it 1-0 at the end of the first half.

As the second half started, the Bobcats were pressing hard to score the equalizer while Siena’s backend remained resistant to the attack. Within the opening moments, Siena keeper Liz Rogan robbed Jess Gargan and Gill of scoring chances making back to back sprawling saves.

Siena quickly responded as the squad was composed and controlled the play for the rest of game along with adding another tally on the scoreboard to eventually take the 2-0 lead late in the second half. Natalia Grodzki made the initial first save off from a rebound but was not able to recover as Siena’s Meghan Riccardi was unmarked to bury the loose ball.

The late second goal deflated Quinnipiac’s hope of moving onto the MAAC tournament as the final whistle soon blew to end the season.

The Bobcats will be graduating six seniors including Natalia Grodzki and Amanda Barroca along many other key role players. The Bobcats are still looking optimistic for seasons to come as they have a large freshman class of thirteen returning players.

“I thought we end up 9-8 overall and 5-5 in the conference with a chance to sneak into a sixth place tournament spot,” Clark said. “They know they have to build up a foundation moving on. You have to learn how compete and win as a group.”

Compared to last season’s record of 3-13-1, the Bobcats will depart the 2015 season with an overall record improvement of 8-8-1.