There’s something special brewing with Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse.
After a disheartening 2024 campaign, which saw women’s lacrosse end with a record of 2-13 and 1-8 in conference, the 2025 season couldn’t have been more different.
Second year head coach Jordan Christopher has led a complete turnaround, with the team improving its overall record to 9-7 and going 4-4 in MAAC play.
“We’re a pretty young team,” Christopher said March 1. “To be able to come out now with some victories is huge for the program.”
Those victories wouldn’t have been possible without the stellar offensive play Quinnipiac displayed this season.
The Bobcats had four different players score 40 or more points for the first time since 2011, senior attacker Abby Wise leads the team with 59 points and a mystifying 32 assists. The second closest assist total was junior attacker Cate Bendowski with 15 assists.
“I would consider myself a very selfless player on the field, especially when it comes to assists,” Wise said Feb. 22. “Sometimes I think I like assists more than goals … I love to be a diverse player.”
And while offense can be great, there’s the classic saying that defense wins championships. And Quinnipiac boasted a championship level defense this season, not allowing a single opposing team to score 20 or more goals. That defensive versatility starts with freshman goaltender Shannon Alden, who played in all 16 games and made 158 saves in the regular season with a save percentage of 48.5%.
“She has been incredible,” Christopher said March 1 on the Alden. “She doesn’t look like a freshman at all, she’s calm, cool and collected. Very composed kid and she’s made some huge saves for us, she helps us build momentum.”
Building and maintaining momentum is an important element of lacrosse that most people don’t usually think about. When the pendulum of momentum begins to swing away from you, it can be devastating. Having the luxury of a goaltender like Alden is something Quinnipiac can take advantage of during the postseason.
It’s often believed that young teams — especially good young teams — can become rattled by the time the playoffs start, postseason inexperience can haunt teams when it’s time to play an elimination game.
But if the Bobcats can shake those postseason nerves, there’s no telling how far this squad can go.
“(Multiple players scoring) gets everyone a little bit of confidence,” senior midfielder EllaGrace Delmond said Feb. 12. “It’s huge especially having the young ones be able to have those opportunities in such big games. It’s better when it comes now earlier in the season so they have that confidence and they can ride on it for the rest of the season.”
Quinnipiac will need that confidence for the opening round of the MAAC playoffs. The No. 6 seed Bobcats will travel to Loudonville, N.Y., for a neutral-site game on April 25 against No. 7 Sacred Heart, who bested Quinnipiac during the regular season 14-11 on March 29. The winner will play No. 3 Siena on April 27. The time of the first face-off to be determined.
