The Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team split a pair of games in Colorado, while the women returned from Pennsylvania with a pair of wins.
The women’s lacrosse team dominated the St. Francis (Pa.) Red Flash, finishing Sunday’s game with a 19-6 win after beating Robert Morris 12-8 on Friday. With special efforts on Sunday from senior Katie Latonick (game-high eight points), junior Christine Sinnegen (four goals), and junior defender Kaityln Kelly (career-high two points), the Bobcats strengthened their record to 8-0 in NEC play.
The lead began early as Laura Iannotti scored less than two minutes into the game, followed by Lauren Matuszczak scoring two goals in less than two minutes. St. Francis scored three goals in the first 30 minutes of play, but was no match for Quinnipiac’s offense, which scored eight straight goals to end the first period with a 13-3 lead.
In the second half, St. Francis stepped up their defense, but it was too little, too late for the Red Flash, who fell to 2-5 in the NEC after Sunday’s loss. Adding the remainder of Quinnipiac’s goals in the second half were Iannotti, Sinnegan (2), sophomore Jane Moldovan, Latonick, freshman Jackie Keleher, and Kelly.
“Today we received a good effort from everyone that played,” Quinnipiac head coach Danie Caro said. It was really important for us to maintain our intensity, focus and quality of play heading in the end of the season, and today we did that.”
While the women had little trouble in Pennsylvania, the men’s lacrosse team had a rockier time in Colorado, losing 14-10 to the University of Denver Pioneers on Sunday afternoon.
Less than a minute into the first quarter, Denver took control and scored. With 11 minutes remaining in the first, Denver was up 3-0. Junior Kevin Kelly, senior Mike Gast and senior Alex Marotto scored in the first half, but Denver led the game 6-3 at halftime.
Quinnipiac responded first in the second half, when Kevin Kelly scored a man-down goal at the 14-minute mark of the third quarter. The deficit was cut to 6-5 when senior Alex DeAlmeida scored at the 7:55 mark of the third quarter, but Denver’s regained momentum and the score was 11-7 in favor of the Pioneers heading into the final quarter.
Senior Todd Kaiser, junior Ted Dimond, and junior Christian Haggerty scored in the final 15 minutes of play, but their efforts could not push the Bobcats past the Pioneers.
The men’s team opened its road trip with an 8-6 win over Air Force before falling to Denver on Sunday.
The men take on Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., next Saturday, while the women will host Columbia on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in their final regular season game.
