STANFORD, Calif. — After 162 days, 28 wins and over 10,000 miles traveled, Quinnipiac women’s basketball 2025-26 season has officially ended. It’s the unfortunate reality that all collegiate teams must face. Their season will not last forever.

For Quinnipiac, its exit comes at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal as the home squad handled the Bobcats 81-69.

“A hard fought game,” head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “We just would not go away.”

Coming into the contest, the Bobcats knew that it was going to be a tall order to take down Stanford. The Cardinal are filled with players who have been nothing short of great within the ACC. To keep its hope of victory alive, Quinnipiac needed to keep offensive pace with Stanford.

For the most part, it did.

The first quarter of action saw the Bobcats trade blows left and right. Quinnipiac graduate student guard Jackie Grisdale started the game off with a pair of made free throws. Stanford Junior guard Chloe Clardy answered immediately after with a jumper. Bobcat junior guard Karson Martin buried a three to gain some distance. Cardinal feshman forward Alexandra Eschymer put in a layup to keep it close.

Bobcat basket, Cardinal basket. Rinse and repeat until the clock hit zero on the first quarter. When the second kicked off, Stanford began to prove exactly why it was the two seed.

The Cardinal would go on an 8-2 run to start the quarter, finishing the half with 27 points. It was the single largest quarter point total given up by Quinnipiac all season.

While the defense was having an uncharacteristically off night, the offense stepped up in a big way. As they have all year, the tandem of senior forward Ella O’Donnell and junior forward Anna Foley dominated in the post, scoring all of Quinnipiac’s 17 points in the second quarter. Their offensive effort kept the game from getting too far out of hand, as the Cardinal held an eight point lead.

“It’s been kind of an up and down year for me,” Foley said.

That was until the second half kicked off and Stanford began to dismantle the Bobcat attack.

Press defense has been very effective against a high paced offense like Quinnipiac. If you take away the speed from a scheme, teams have great success. In the third quarter, Stanford instituted a press and held the Bobcats to their lowest point total of the game. The press was so effective that Quinnipiac went four straight possessions without a converted field goal.

To say the offense struggled would be an understatement.

With the season on the line, the Bobcats knew they needed a better fourth quarter if they were to pull off an upset. But those offensive struggles that plagued Quinnipiac in the third continued into the fourth. This time around, it was turnover after turnover that squandered any chance of momentum the Bobcats had.

The Bobcats final offensive effort came in the closing minutes of the game. Foley chucks up a three which falls. 68-63 Stanford. Quinnipiac gets a stop,and O’Donnell goes to the line. She buries the first free throw and the second hits right off the rim and into the hands of Martin.

Martin attempts a cross court pass to Grisdale which is intercepted by Clardy. She takes it to the rim and extends the Cardinal lead. After a plethora of fouls to bleed the clock, Grisdale knocks down her 238th and final three pointer of her illustrious Bobcat career. But the offensive effort from the three-time captain was too little too late. The final horn rang and the Bobcats season officially came to a close.

This final horn has some extra meaning behind it. Firstly, the graduating class of senior guard Sydney Ryan, Grisdale and O’Donnell have officially concluded their careers in a Bobcat uniform.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Grisdale said. “To have a chance to get a fifth year with this team. I’m so grateful.”

The graduating class aren’t the only departers in 2026. Fabbri will be exiting the sideline after 31 years.

“Honestly, it feels like there’s going to be another practice or another game,” Fabbri said.

There’s a lot of moving pieces this offseason. A lot of unpredctability. Instead of a team focusing on their first ever postseason tournament victory and another year in the MAAC championship, the team is being forced to imagine a reality without their leader by their side.

It will be a long road ahead in the coming months, but the team is ready to sustain the success built by Fabbri for three decades.