HAMDEN – After struggling on the defensive end to start the season, the Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse team struggled offensively falling to Bryant 10-4 Saturday afternoon.
“We’re struggling to put 60 minutes together right now,” Quinnipiac interim head coach Jordan Christopher said. “That’s something that we’re going to continue to focus on. Early on in the season, we were having some struggles defensively … More recently, we’re now struggling on the offensive end. We’ve got to find a way to put both sides of the ball together a little bit better.”
The two sides took turns delivering blows in the first half, with neither able to take a lead larger than two.
With the game tied at one, Bryant junior midfielder Amelia Piercy found the back of the net twice to give the visitors a 3-1 advantage after one quarter.
With every Quinnipiac goal, Bryant was there to match it. But with the offense struggling, the Bobcats’ defense came up big time, forcing three shot-clock violations in the first half.
Quinnipiac keyed in on senior attacker Kenna Kaut, who entered the game with 31 goals on the season.
“We had a pretty specific game plan for our defensive scheme today,” Christopher said. “(Kaut) is a goal scorer, (senior midfielder) Kalie Moore and (sophomore midfielder) Emily Keegan did a good job shutting her down today, so it got them out of their rhythm a little bit.”
Junior goalkeeper Lindsay Mazzucco was phenomenal throughout for the hosts, making tough save after tough save to keep her team in it.
“She wasn’t our starter before this year,” Christopher said. “She’s earned that role so far.”
With the Bobcats trailing 5-3 at the half, freshman midfielder Iris Polly got the Bobcats the first goal of the third quarter, cutting the deficit back to one.
But no matter what the Quinnipiac defense did, the offense just couldn’t get it going against a stout Bryant defensive effort.
“Defensive end is holding their own, we just have to remember that both sides are connected,” Christopher said. “When the defense does their job, it’s for the offense, and when the offense does their job, it’s for the defense.”
Sophomore midfielder Emily DeGeorge gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game with 25 seconds remaining in the third period, claiming a 7-4 lead heading into the fourth.
DeGeorge didn’t stop there, scoring twice more in the final frame to finish off the Bobcats. Quinnipiac’s offense went silent, failing to score at all in the fourth quarter.
“We got just stifled, in the second half in particular,” Christopher said. “Offensively, it just wasn’t good enough, too many turnovers and it’s hurting us right now.”
The Bobcats will wrap up their non-conference schedule on Mar. 13, when they travel to Virginia to play Old Dominion. Game time is set for noon.
