Standout Stats

As Quinnipiac’s fall sports teams start to wind down their regular seasons, Sports Editor Jared Penna takes a look at some key stats from each team

Jared Penna, Sports Editor

Men’s Soccer

Stat: 2.00

The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team scored an average of 2.00 goals per game this season. Two goals per game is the most the Bobcats have scored per game since 2001, head coach Eric Da Costa’s final season as a player, when they also averaged two goals per game. The last time the Bobcats surpassed this mark was in 1997, when they averaged 2.38 goals per game. Reigning MAAC Player of the Year, senior forward Eamon Whelan, recorded a team-high nine goals this season, including a hat trick on Oct. 30, against Siena. The Bobcats had 11 goal-scorers this season, tied for the most in the MAAC with Marist and two greater than any other MAAC opponent.

Brendan O’Sullivan
Junior goalkeeper Jared Mazzola reaches to the sky to clear the ball from Quinnipiac’s box.

Women’s Soccer

Stat: 7

The women’s soccer team recorded seven shutouts this season. All seven of those shutouts resulted in victories. The last time the team recorded more than seven shutouts, including  draws, was in 2012 when it had eight, one coming in a draw. The team matched the seven shutout victory mark in 2006 and 2000 as well. The last time the team had more than seven shutout victories was in 1999, when it recorded nine. Freshman goalkeeper Meaghan Phillips was a big contributor to the team’s success this season and didn’t allow a single goal in her first 212 minutes and 42 seconds as a Bobcat.

Field Hockey

Stat: 31

The Quinnipiac field hockey team took 31 shots in a 2-0 victory over Sacred Heart this season on Sept. 14. That was a season-high for the Bobcats, led by graduate student midfielder Bianca Strubbe (eight shots) and freshman forward Julianna Cappello (six shots). The last time the Bobcats took that many shots in a game was in 2009, when they took 34 shots — also against Sacred Heart — winning that game by a score of 5-0. Despite there being more shots in 2009, both games featured 16 shots on goal.

Golf

Stat: 4.89

Junior Queenie Lai finished the season averaging 4.89 strokes on par-five holes, the best mark in the history of the program. This year’s team also had members who now hold the second, third and fourth lowest average scores on par-five holes. Sophomore Elena Lopez (4.93), senior Alexandra Sazhin (4.94) and freshman Kaylee Sakoda (5.02) all set career-best marks in the par-five average score category, cementing this year’s team as one of the best Quinnipiac has ever put together in terms of par-five holes. The team had two more players, Darby Lillibridge (5.17) and Leeyen Peralta (5.18) who finished in the top twelve for lowest average score on par-five holes in program history.

Courtesy of QU Athletics
Freshman Kaylee Sakoda tees off.

Volleyball

Stat: 15.7

With three games remaining, the Bobcats are averaging 15.7 digs per set. If they keep up that pace, it would be the highest mark in the history of the program. The team averaged 15.5 digs per set in 2010, and 15.24 digs per set in 1994. First-year head coach Kyle Robinson revamped the team this year, winning 11 games to date, two more than last season and the most since 2016 when the Bobcats went 21-13. Senior libero Alejandra Rodriguez leads the way for the Bobcats with 429 digs so far this season, good for 4.77  digs per set herself.

Rugby

Stat: 4

Sophomore wing Clara Lemal-Brown scorched Dartmouth’s defense for four tries on Oct. 12. Lemal-Brown’s four tries were the most by any player for Quinnipiac’s rugby team this season. Lemal-Brown matched her career-high in tries from last year, when she recorded four against Brown in an 85-3 victory. With those two performances, Lemal-Brown has the two highest-scoring performances in a single game over the past two seasons for any player on the rugby team.

Men’s Cross Country

Stat: 3

Senior Michael Kiernan finished in the top 10 in three of his team’s five meets this season. Those finished include a third place finish at the Shawn Nassaney Invite, a fifth place finish at the Monmouth Invitational and a 10th place finish at the Paul Short Invitational. Kiernan also placed in the top 20 at the Stony Brook Invitational, finishing 17th.

Courtesy of QU Athletics
Senior Michael Kiernan leading the pack during a race.

Women’s Cross Country

Stat: 5

The Quinnipiac women’s cross country team placed in the top five in five of its meets this season. Those finishes included two second place finishes at the Stony Brook Invitational and the Shawn Nassaney Invitational, a third place finish at the Henry Mercer Monmouth Invitational, a fourth place finish at the New England Championships and a fifth place finish at the 2019 MAAC Championships. This is the first time the team has had five, top five finishes since 2010, when it won three meets, finished second in another and fifth in one more.