The Quinnipiac women’s soccer team finished the regular season undefeated. However, Bobcats head coach Dave Clarke says it’s all just part of the process of winning a conference title.
“We give them process goals, so you can’t just turn around and say ‘This is it,’ it’s one game at a time,” Clarke said on Oct. 21. “Now they go into that last game against Manhattan where they can accomplish it. Very few teams do that.”
The process isn’t just taking it game-by-game, it’s more about how they win games, including how many goals they need to score and how they keep opponents out of the net.
“The message is ‘We want two goals a game on average and a clean sheet’ and that’s what we’re working towards,” Clarke said. “Then, we talk about ‘How do we keep a clean sheet?’ ‘How do we get the first goal and how do we get the second?’ We want every single player to score a goal and every single player to be involved in the process.”
That drive and hunger for success is what attracted senior midfielder Emely van der Vliet to Quinnipiac. Van der Vliet found herself in the transfer portal after her sophomore season at UT-Martin, and the Netherlands native even had doubts if she could make it work in the U.S.
“I wanted to go to a program that wins and wins championships,” van der Vliet said. “I never knew it was going to be like this … There was a little bit of a doubt when I was in the transfer portal about if I could stay here in the states and do it, and I’m glad that I’ve finally flourished.”
Heading into post-season play, the Bobcats know all of the pressure is on them to finish the job.
“I feel like we are relentless,” van der Vliet said. “When we won the regular season title, it was on no one’s mind that we just won the league, we wanted to keep going.”
Quinnipiac’s stellar regular season was rewarded with a first-round bye as well as seven different selections to the All-MAAC First Team. Clarke received the MAAC Coach of the Year award. He is the first coach from Quinnipiac to be awarded as the league’s top coach since the Bobcats joined the MAAC in 2013. In addition, Chochol received the MAAC Golden Boot. The award comes following a dominant regular season campaign where the Alliston, Ontario, native led the conference with 23 points. Quinnipiac now has back-to-back Golden Boot winners, after former Bobcat Rebecca Cooke won the award last season.
Senior goalkeeper Sofia Lospinoso received the Golden Glove, which is awarded to the top goalkeeper in the conference. The New Jersey native became the first player in program history to win the award.
No. 1 Quinnipiac will square off with No. 6 Rider in the MAAC semifinals, after Rider defeated No. 3 Canisius 1-0 in the quarterfinal match on Sunday.
Kickoff for the semifinal match is slated for 2 p.m. on Nov. 2.
