HAMDEN, Conn. – Quinnipiac field hockey secured its second victory of the season – 4-1 over Bryant Wednesday – behind two goals from junior forward Lucia Pompeo and six saves from sophomore goalkeeper Cristina Torres.
Wednesday’s win was Nina Klein’s first win as head coach at home since taking over the position from Becca Main, who stepped down after 28 years in the offseason.
“I’m just super excited that we were able to get our first win at home,” Klein said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to work with everyone on our staff on a daily basis. (Main) has been a great mentor even from afar and it’s been really nice to still have her in my back pocket to run ideas around with. Yeah, she’s, she’s an awesome mentor.”
Players like Pompeo and graduate student midfielder Julianna Cappello are buying into the new regime Klein has brought to the team.
“It’s awesome. We’ve been really grinding. Obviously, we struggled at the beginning, but it’s super exciting, especially for Nina, her first win here as a head coach at home,” said Pompeo.
“We’ve been working so hard as a team, our chemistry was really there today. So it’s always great to get to win, especially on our home field,” Cappello said.
Cappello opened the scoring for the Bobcats within the first 39 seconds, putting the ball past freshman goalkeeper Colby Lavoie.
With 9:20 left in the first quarter, the game was stopped for a weather delay, which lasted 40 minutes.
“It’s honestly my first time either as an assistant or as a head coach dealing with it, but our team has fantastic energy,” Klein said. “Keeping them motivated and energized is the biggest thing because you just don’t want them to hit a dip energy wise, and then we go back out, and it’s not to the level that we want.”
After coming back from the lightning delay, the game became a track meet, as both teams went back and forth until the hosts struck again with 2:50 left in the first half. Pompeo rifled a shot toward the top right corner which Lavoie didn’t get enough to keep it out.
Bryant pulled the game within one after a great team passing play led by a between-the-legs pass from graduate student forward Emma Rothkopf to sophomore midfielder Natalie Griffin.
The Bobcats increased their lead to 3-1 with eight minutes left in the game when senior midfielder Micaela Grajales put it past Lavoie off a penalty corner. This lead prompted Bryant head coach Jillian Coppola to pull Lavoie in the dying minutes in an attempt to cut into the Bobcats’ lead. This decision proved costly for the Bulldogs as Pompeo sealed the game with her second goal of the afternoon to increase the lead to 4-1 with just over two minutes left.
Quinnipiac begins conference play at Providence on Sept. 15.
“Providence is gonna be a good game, especially with the history we have there. Our assistant coach played there. Soph (graduate student forward Sophia Pompeo) obviously played there for four years. So, there’s a lot behind that game. We’re all fired up for it,” Lucia Pompeo said.
