Quinnipiac field hockey was on the brink of making history last fall. Tied at two and heading to overtime against Temple, its first Big East Tournament berth lay on the line.

It was the tune the Bobcats sang all season long. Mere inches from getting the words right, Owls’ graduate student forward Myrthe Schuilenburg clipped their wings with the winning goal.

“You can look back and you can dwell, or we can move forward and we can be resilient and, you know, resourceful and ready to learn,” head coach Nina Klein said.

It appears the learning curve is steep.

Klein’s inaugural year at the helm didn’t invite many critiques. Despite a sub-.500 season, Quinnipiac never lost a game by more than one goal aside from an 8-0 clobbering by Old Dominion.

The Bobcats had offensive prowess, and often struck first throughout the season. But ultimately, they could not compete for all four quarters. Quinnipiac’s inability to close games out showed in its 1-4 overtime record.

“We just need to trust each other,” senior forward Lucia Pompeo said. “Trust the coaching staff, make sure that we’re playing like the full 60 minutes, which we talked a lot about in practice, starting off strong and finishing strong.”

That’s the missing piece. If Quinnipiac can hang tough with its opponents — especially in the back — until the final whistle, it will see success.

Through a lot of tough run tests and lift sessions and stuff like that,” junior goaltender Cristina Torres said of preseason.

“(They were) definitely hard, but they made us better. And one of (Klein’s) goals was to get us fitness-wise, like (a) top 25 team.”

The Bobcats were always ‘right there’ and ‘so close’ in 2023, putting up fights with squads who had higher compete levels. Quinnipiac was shifted to the Big East in 2016 when MAAC field hockey dissolved, and is yet to push past its conference woes.

Maybe that can change.

“We really want to fortify our defense this year,” Klein said. “Last year we had some really exciting attacking opportunities, but the goal this year is to prevent the opponent from really, you know, in those goal-scoring opportunities.”

Many of those opportunities were thanks to Big East Midfielder of the Year Stella Tegtmeier. The Bobcats will surely feel her absence, but that’s also the name of the game.

“As coaches, you know, every year, we have to deal with losing immense and amazing talent,” Klein said. “But we also, in terms of our recruiting, decided to bring in some midfielders that you know can hopefully fill some roles.”

Sprinkle in the likes of two seasoned returners — senior forward Lucia Pompeo and sophomore defender Katie Shanahan — and Quinnipiac is on its way to replacing integral parts of Tegtmeier’s presence.

“We are a completely new team,” Klein said. “We’re bringing in seven new incomers, and we’re putting everyone in a position that we’re playing a lot faster than we were last season in terms of just the speed of the players, our practices have been exponentially better.”

Game speed is crucial in most sports, as obvious as it may seem. A team like Quinnipiac likely harnesses the depth and skill of opponents such as Liberty or Old Dominion, but it hasn’t always maintained the same fast-paced gameplay.

“We really have a fresh slate this season,” sophomore defender Katie Shanahan said. “With everyone working hard and just buying into the ‘team first’ mentality and making sure we’re on our marks in the circle, making sure we’re intercepting lines, we’re not letting the other team step in front of us and just getting two women on the ball rather than just having one of us.”

There’s another driving force in Quinnipiac’s quest for a Big East Tournament berth — it’s the 30th anniversary of field
hockey’s arrival in Hamden.

“It’s a huge year for Quinnipiac field hockey,” Klein said. “This is our team and our 30th year of Quinnipiac field hockey. Obviously, the inaugural season was, you know, 1995 and we really were, we’re knocking on the door. I mean, last year, we could have made history. And I’m excited for the drive and passion that these athletes have every day to continue to put the pro-
gram on the map.”

It’s a feeling that echoes from the coaching staff to the players, from non-conference matchups to Big East faceoffs.

“Everyone wants to win a championship,” Shanahan said. “So it’s going to come down to who’s putting in that extra
work and doing that extra session, (getting) that extra touch on the ball.”

The jury’s out — Quinnipiac was picked to finish No. 7 via the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Only six teams advance to
the tournament, and the Bobcats expect no less than to break the mold.

“We want to survive, we want to advance,” Klein said. “Something I say every year is we want to be playing our best hockey come October.”

It’s not October yet, but it’s certainly on the horizon.