The Quinnipiac field hockey team (3-6 overall, 2-0 conference) beat Liberty (3-4 overall, 1-1 conference) by a score of 1-0 in the first game of the QU Bobcat Invitational.

[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]After the game, head coach Becca Main described how the Bobcats were able to contain Agueda Moroni and Jill Bolton.

“With those two players, you can’t just have all four midfielders play on them the entire game,” Main said. “We asked the whole team to take turns on them and because of that, it really paid off for us and the team took ownership to it.”

At 17:24 in the first half, the Bobcats were able to take the lead on senior Lauren Belskie’s fourth goal of the season. Belskie’s tally was all the Bobcats would need to carry them through the first half.

In the second half, Liberty started to increase its pressure, but the Bobcats were able to hold strong, due to the play of sophomore goaltender Livy Golini. Golini faced 13 shots and was able to save four.

Even though there weren’t a ton of chances, Main described how Golini’s performance contributed to the win.

“Livy has done a really solid job and made three or four unbelievable saves,” Main said. “But at the same time, she was at the right spot at the right time, and gave us all 70 minutes today.”

Even though Main put the spotlight on her, Golini still tired to emphasize how important of a team win this game was.

“It was a good team win, and every little thing went well today,” Golini said.

The Bobcats had to play this game without sophomore forward Valerie Perkins, who was out with a hip injury. Perkins has three goals, one assist, seven points and eight shots on goal this season.

“I think what we learned in that last two weeks is to have a lot of trust,” Main said. “We talked about Perkins not being in the lineup and how everyone had to pick her up time and minutes, and were going to take care of this until Perkins is ready to come back.”

[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”260″][/media-credit]On Sunday, the Bobcats will try to pick up their second win of the three-day event, this time against the University of California. California is 4-3 overall, 1-0 in American East conference play and will try to pick up its first win in the invitational.

“I’m expecting a good game from them, and being in the Big East we don’t expect less of anyone,” Golini said. “We are like a small fish in a big pond expecting to play bigger teams and hopefully that continues.”