HAMDEN — On paper, Quinnipiac’s Saturday night 3-1 win over Sacred Heart went easily. 

The Bobcats had more kills, more assists, more blocks, more digs and less service and attack errors than the Pioneers. 

But the statistics only tell part of the story. 

“Here’s the problem, our girls are way too nice,” head coach Kyle Robinson said. “It would be a pleasure for my two daughters to be like any of the young women on my team. But on the court, that’s when you have to be vicious. We don’t want to be rude and disrespectful, but I wanna dominate everyone, in competition, and we don’t show that on a consistent basis.”

The Bobcats started the game pretty much running out the gate. An early six point run due to Sacred Heart attack errors would give them momentum that they carried the whole set, as they took it 25-15. 

In just that set alone, freshman outside hitter Vittoria Tonelli killed five points, out of her total 14 kills on the night. 

“I thought she did a good job as a young player,” Robinson said. “This is how we toughen you up, we throw you into the deep end and teach you how to swim that way and she’s doing an excellent job.”

The Italian native held her own with the more seasoned players on the team, tying with graduate student opposite Elena Giacomini in total attacks, at 34, and in digs, with senior outside hitter Yagmur Gunes with nine.

The Pioneers came out swinging in the second set, propelled by six errors on the Bobcats’ side. Sacred Heart recorded 14 kills in this set alone, almost half of all of its kills on the night.  

“You saw the second set, it was a nightmare, it was tragic,” Robinson said. 

Senior middle blocker Milena Silva has joined the starting line-up this season and has been showing up in that post. The Brazilian has already almost doubled her stats from her freshman and junior seasons and had one solo block and three block assists to go with her two kills tonight.

“I mean, I wanted to be there since freshman year,” Silva laughed. “I got hurt, that happens, but coming back and having a stable role on the team, I’m very happy with that.”

Silva, however, also recorded two attack errors on the night.

“She’s another brilliant person, but she does some of the most bonehead things on the court,” Robinson said. “We gotta marry that brilliance to her game.”

And then came the struggle. 

Sacred Heart took the third set 25-20, forcing the Bobcats into the fourth set to win the match. While the Bobcats had more total attacks and tied the kills at 11 in the third set, it was the 10 attack errors that lost them the set. 

“Losing a set is normal,” Tonelli said. “A lot of things can happen. Just start again, put more attention on the service, on the pass and keep going, reset.”

Which is exactly what the Bobcats did. In a way resembling the first set, an early run would create a gap between Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart that the Pioneers couldn’t close as they fell 25-12. 

In that last set a few players who had been watching from the sidelines finally got to see the game from the court, as Robinson subbed Gunes out for junior outside hitter Leilani-kai Giusta and Silva for senior middle blocker Tuana Turhan.

“I wanted to do it earlier,” Robinson said. “I wanted to give (Gunes) some relief. It would be something useful for the rest of the season, so I wanted to get a look and also reward them because they’ve earned it. (Turhan) she doesn’t play much but she’s a brilliant volleyball player. Now, if we could marry off the other players’ athleticism with that, that’d be a different story.”

Senior outside hitter Ginevra Giovagnoni who made her debut back in the front line last night against Fairfield sat out tonight’s game. 

“The whole point of recruiting really good players is to not have to rely on a single person,” Robinson said. “From top to bottom in each position, we got really good players and probably the deepest we’ve ever been at Quinnipiac volleyball. We’ve been easing (Giovagnoni) back into it. If we don’t need to, let’s not push it.” 

With this win, Quinnipiac moves to 9-2 in the MAAC, and is currently on a six game win streak, following a home game loss to Niagara on Oct. 4. 

“I thought we were being lazy and taking things for granted,” Robinson said. “Losses happen, but they take it personally and they’ve been working hard. I just think that we are a good Merlot, we’re like fine wine getting better.”

Quinnipiac will welcome Merrimack in its next game Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. on the Burt Kahn Court.