For any team, a new season means the turning of the tides in more ways than one. The Quinnipiac women’s soccer team kicked off 2017-18 regular season play at home, on a brand new turf complex.

[media-credit id=2167 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]The Bobcats broke-in the new field by beating Army West Point 2-0 on Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve been training here and it’s been a bit of an erie existence,” Quinnipiac head coach Dave Clarke said. “To get on campus, especially with school in [session] and parents being able to sit on the side and sort of christen the facility, it was good.”

Quinnipiac (2-1) wasted no time finding scoring chances against the Black Knights (1-1-2). Junior Madison Borowiec scored the first goal in Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Turf Complex history just six minutes into the match when junior Jess Gargan rushed down the sidelines and crossed the ball to an open Borowiec, who made no mistake scoring from inside of the box.

Although scoring the first goal on the new turf is an individual feat in the history books, Borowiec understands that the Bobcats still have to play cooperatively in any field condition down the stretch in order to continue the scoring trend.

“Getting that first goal definitely felt really good,” Borowiec said. “I think it’s kind of unreal that we have this stadium now, it’s great, but, I think being on the grass or being on the turf, it doesn’t really matter. We’re going to play our game and try to bring our best energy no matter way we play.”

Just over six minutes later the Bobcats found the back of the net again.

This time, junior Al Pelletier was the beneficiary of a well-executed passing play that started from midfield. Junior Nadya Gill made a quick touch to redshirt freshman Kelsey Goldring, who then found Pelletier on the opposite side with a great ball.

[media-credit id=2167 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]“It was important to take the lead and add to it, and we did,” Clarke said. “It gave us something to protect, we didn’t have to chase the game…and that’s a whole different type of performance required.”

But the second half played out differently from the opening frame of play.

Army came out of the intermission flying, firing five shots in the first 15 minutes. Despite the added pressure, the Bobcats’ back line and sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Myszewski seemed unphased.

“[Myszewski] has had a rough start in a couple of games, not necessarily at fault for a lot of the goals,” Clarke said. “We figured out for the rest of the season we’ll give [Myszewski] that chance because of her performance last year and how she’s trained this week.”

Myszewski faced four more shots in the remaining minutes of the second half, but kept the Black Knights to no goals on the scoresheet.

[media-credit id=2167 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]As the 90-minute mark passed, Quinnipiac held onto its 2-0 lead and finished the contest with its first clean sheet of the season. The Bobcats’ ability to capitalize early offensively and contain Army in a high-pressure situation proved the team to be a worthy of task.

“We need to understand that you can’t just be hanging on at one-nil, or two-nil in this case,” Clarke said. “But if a chance comes…three-nil and now it’s comfortable and now you can play a bit.”

Next up, Quinnipiac hopes to extend its winning ways when Bryant University makes its first visit to the Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Turf Complex on Wednesday at 1 p.m.