After a six-hour battle with Mother Nature Saturday, Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse came away with the 5-4 win over Mount St. Mary’s to secure home-field advantage in the opening round of next week’s MAAC Tournament.

Just before the three-minute mark of the opening quarter, Bobcats freshman attacker Mia Delmond got the scoring started with her 28th goal of the season, bouncing a shot under the stick of Mountaineers senior goaltender Madison Bradley. 

With 8:59 remaining in the first quarter, a loud crack of thunder and a flash of lightning sent both teams running into their respective locker rooms. 

After a four-hour weather delay, the Bobcats and Mountaineers were finally ready to resume play.

As play started up again in the early evening hours, both teams tried to get back into a groove after being stuck in the locker room during the weather delay. On offense, neither team was overly aggressive and pushed the pace.

Just past the seven-minute mark in the first quarter, after intercepting an errant Mountaineer pass, Bobcats senior midfielder Amy Nicoloff charged down the field. Just when it looked like Nicoloff was winding up for a shot, she flicked a pass to senior attacker Emily Feeney who scored the Bobcats second goal of the game.

However, less than a minute later, after Bobcats senior goaltender Kat Henselder had a shot from Mountaineers graduate student attacker Abby Osmeyer deflected off the shaft of her stick and it was now a one-goal Bobcats lead.

Two minutes later, Quinnipiac senior attacker Desiree Kleberg snuck a shot by the stick of Bradley, tying her for the team lead in goals with Delmond. More importantly, it gave the team a two-goal lead by a score of 3-1.

In the dying seconds of the quarter, Mountaineers graduate student attacker Erin Anderson beat Henselder with her shot, but not the crossbar.

Three minutes into the second quarter, the first yellow card of the game was issued to Quinnipiac sophomore attacker Angelina Sparacio for a check to the head of Mount St. Mary’s sophomore midfielder Anna Salerno. Bobcats sophomore defender Caelan O’Connor earned the team’s second yellow card just past the midway point in the quarter.

After several back-and-forth possessions sophomore midfielder EllaGrace Delmond beat Bradley on a wrap-around shot, extending the Bobcat lead to 4-1 where it stayed going into halftime.

Coming out of the locker room knowing how much of a scoring threat she was, Quinnipiac adjusted its defense and began double-teaming Osmeyer, a trend that would continue for the rest of the game. 

While the Bobcats were doing a good job of limiting Osmeyer’s time of possession, with just over four minutes left in the quarter, Mountaineers graduate student attacker Julianna Sanchez dropped a shot up and over Henselder’s stick, making it a 4-2 game.

However, it was the Bobcats with the momentum as with 23 seconds remaining in the quarter senior attacker Sophia Iaccino beat Bradley in between the legs, making it 5-2 Bobcats.

Even though they were behind, to start the fourth quarter, Mount St. Mary’s was still playing a slow-paced game, not trying to force shots toward Henselder. Just before the five-minute mark in the quarter, after converting on a free position opportunity it was Sanchez who scored her 24th goal of the season and brought the Mountaineers within two. 

As it got deeper into the quarter it became a question of who was going to falter first: Henselder or Bradley?

After being unable to corral the initial shot Anderson grabbed her own rebound and stuffed it under the right arm of Henselder, making it a one-goal game with just under four minutes remaining. 

Despite a late charge by Mount St. Mary’s, Henselder didn’t let Anderson’s goal rattle her and as the clock hit zero it was the Bobcats escaping with the 5-4 win. 

With the win the Bobcats finished 9-7 on the season while riding a three-game winning streak, and, more importantly, earned the No. 4 seed in the MAAC Tournament. 

The team’s opening-round match on Apr. 30 will be in Hamden against the No. 5 Canisius Golden Griffins. In their lone regular season matchup, the Bobcats defeated the Golden Griffins on Apr. 15 in overtime by a final of 9-8.