HAMDEN, Conn — Despite a promising three-game win streak in early September, Quinnipiac field hockey dipped back below .500 on the season after the team dropped its second consecutive game Sunday with a 2-1 home loss to Yale.
Both the Bobcats and the Bulldogs headed into Sunday’s game on the heels of winnable one-goal losses Friday — Quinnipiac lost to Villanova 4-3 after squandering its 3-0 lead, and Penn beat Yale 3-2 after rallying from a two-goal deficit.
But the Bobcats did not play like they remembered how quickly their lead had turned to a loss just two days prior. And the Bulldogs did.
Graduate student midfielder Julianna Cappello put the Bobcats on the board less than five minutes into the first quarter. But the five-hole shot past senior goaltender Luanna Summer — Capello’s second of the season — would be Quinnipiac’s only goal of the game.
“It’s just a joy to watch her play and compete every day,” first-year head coach Nina Klein said of Cappello. “I really think she wants it bad this year, and she’s showing every game with her attacking abilities that she wants to get us a goal and put us up.”
Yale made a netminder change a few minutes later, replacing its starter with junior Alexa Pitts for the first time this season and only the second time in Pitts’ collegiate career.
And although the Bobcats’ defense held the Bulldogs scoreless for most of the first half, Yale senior forward/midfielder Ashley Kim converted on a penalty corner with 16 seconds remaining in the second quarter to tie the game at one.
Then, with under a minute-and-a-half to play in the third quarter, junior midfielder/forward Ellie Barlow capitalized on another Bulldogs penalty corner to put Yale ahead for the first time of the afternoon.
The teams held each other scoreless for the remainder of the game, though Quinnipiac made Yale’s defense fight for the win as the time on the clock dwindled down.
With three minutes to play in regulation, Klein pulled sophomore goalkeeper Cristina Torres from the net in the hopes that the player advantage might help the Bobcats send the game to overtime.
Less than 45 seconds later, referees handed down a five-minute penalty to Yale sophomore forward Poppy Beales on a stick obstruction call.
Then, a delay of game call left the Bulldogs scrambling to kill two penalties against an empty net with just over 40 seconds to go.
But the thrilling climax was all for naught — the Bobcats could not capitalize on the last-minute three-player advantage.
“Going up in numbers in the last two minutes and not being able to get an outcome … definitely, definitely hurt us today,” Klein said.
Quinnipiac’s offense struggled beyond the first 15 minutes, putting up five shots before the end of the first quarter but only another four in the next three quarters combined.
“It’s still execution at the end of the day,” Klein said. “We had probably two close ones that could have gotten in the back of the net, but we just couldn’t find a way today.”
And where the Bobcats offense failed to convert a single penalty corner on six attempts, Quinnipiac’s defense struggled to stop Yale when the roles were reversed.
“The attacking corners of Yale obviously proved to be pretty strong today, and we didn’t manage that,” Klein said of the Bulldogs, who, unlike the Bobcats, converted two corners on six attempts.
Klein emphasized that Quinnipiac’s 2-1 loss Sunday was not for Torres’ lack of effort. The 5-foot-4-inch netminder made several acrobatic plays to keep the ball out of the net, including a diving save in the second quarter to keep Yale forward/midfielder Julia Freedman’s penalty stroke off the scoreboard.
“She’s just very agile back there,” Klein said of Torres. “She definitely keeps us in games.”
But as Quinnipiac prepares to face conference rival Georgetown on the road, Klein said she wants to see the Bobcats competing for a full 60 minutes.
“I thought we had probably a substantial 30 minutes of good field hockey today,” Klein said. “So, we definitely want to build on the strengths and the positives that we just saw from our team, but it just needs to be sustained throughout an entire match.”
The Bobcats (3-4) will take on the Hoyas (1-8) at 4 p.m. Friday.
