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  • Everything you need to know about Quinnipiac men’s tennis this season

    Everything you need to know about Quinnipiac men’s tennis this season

    By Sam Vetto and Ben Yeargin

    April 21, 2024, may have seemed like an ordinary day for everyone else. It wasn’t a holiday, it simply was just another Sunday in April. But not for the Quinnipiac men’s tennis team, who won its first MAAC Championship on that day.

    Then-senior Donovan Brown played his final point against Fairfield graduate student Griffin Schlesinger and was immediately dogpiled by the rest of the team following an out-of-bounds return. The team hugged each other, celebrated and jumped around following it.

    Now as Quinnipiac looks to make another run at the MAAC Championship, the team looks a little different

    As the Bobcats — unanimously voted No. 1 in the MAAC preseason coaches poll — look to repeat this season, QU Sports Page’s Sam Vetto and Benjamin Yeargin bring to you everything you need to know about men’s tennis.

    Roster

    During Quinnipiac’s MAAC Tournament run last season, it used six players total in both the doubles and singles points. Two of those six are no longer with the team.

    Shaurya Sood and Ayato Arakaki — the former team captain — both graduated in the spring, which leaves holes in the Bobcats top six.

    Thankfully for Quinnipiac, it has the depth to counter that. The Bobcats retained reigning MAAC Player of the Year graduate Daniel Velek as well as mainstays in sophomores Finn Burridge and Carlos Braun Simo.

    Velek, Burridge and Braun Simo will play a lot in the upcoming slate, with all of them hoping to add to their positive win-loss records in singles play. None of that trio has lost over eight singles sets.

    But Velek lost his main doubles partner in Sood which went 19-9 overall. Brown also lost Arakaki; they went 12-12 together last season.

    So who has Quinnipiac turned to to complete its top six? Mainly freshmen and graduate student Alex Yang, who transferred in from SMU. In the Bobcats 7-0 loss to Brown on Feb. 7, all of the aforementioned played but freshmen James Lorenzetti and Elias Hoxha each took a spot in the six-man rotation.

    Head coach Brian Adinolfi has shaken up the doubles by splitting Burridge and Braun Simo. He’s paired Simo with Lorenzetti and Burridge with Hoxha. To fill in Sood’s spot with Velek, Adinolfi has turned to Yang. They haven’t won a point together.

    Brown — who played in two matches in Quinnipiac’s fall slate — has not played any of the spring slate.

    Additionally, the Bobcats carry five players that act as depth. Juniors Csanad Nyaradi and Gaurav Mootha and senior Yasha Laskin have spent their entire college careers at Quinnipiac. Freshmen Vishal Prakash and Carl Sjoholm join for their first MAAC campaign.

    If the Bobcats want to repeat, they need Velek, Burridge and Braun Simo to carry the load. Otherwise, they’ll walk into the summer dreaming about what could’ve been.

    The Returner

    Velek is returning to the team where he made his mark on the MAAC. The Czech athlete, who was the 2023-24 MAAC player of the year, lost his previous doubles partner this past break, but replaced him with a new graduate student in Alex Yang.

    Velek went 17-8 in singles competition over the past year, as well as 19-9 in doubles with his former partner, Sood. A big question going into this season for the returning MAAC POTY is how will his new partnership affect performance?

    While the team has played one event since the start of the new year, Yang and Velek lost 1-6 to Penn State’s Reiya Hittori and Marcus Shoeman. This is something to keep in mind as the season goes on, but it is something to be taken with a grain of salt.

    Although this new duo is fresh it is expected to make mistakes, a real sense of potential for the future of this duo can begin being stenciled in as the rest of the season progresses. Be prepared for a bump or two in the road, but with a player as strong as Velek returning to this roster, don’t be surprised if they end up figuring it out as the season goes on.

    The New Face

    Alex Yang, fresh off a stint at SMU, took his skills north to Hamden. The former Bronco came off an off year, going 5-3 in singles, as well as 1-1 in doubles playing in both mixed and standard doubles.

    While numbers may be slim here in 2023-24, Yang made his mark in 2021-2022 where he made Second Team All-UAA and was named captain.

    The right-hander is coming in with a bevy of experience in big moments. With the graduate student looking to take a step up, the real question will come from his performances going forward, as well as his success being paired up with Velek.

    Schedule

    The Bobcats have gone to NJIT, Penn State, St. John’s, Brown and Cornell — who have lost a combined three points — to start the season. So far, Quinnipiac has only won two points in its first five matches. That was because Lorenzetti’s opponent Penn State freshman Shrikeshav Murugesan was injured and couldn’t continue.

    The Bobcats home opener is Saturday, Feb. 15 against Monmouth in North Haven, Connecticut. They’re at home again next weekend when they take on Bryant.

    Although they do have courts on the Quinnipiac Mount Carmel Campus, the cold weather prevents Quinnipiac from playing on them until mid-March.

    The Bobcats have a seven-match away stretch throughout the end of February and middle of March that’s punctuated with a MAAC semifinals rematch against Marist on March 22. The Red Foxes were picked to finish No. 5 in the coaches poll.

    Then, Quinnipiac has a five-match homestand highlighted by a match against Siena on April 5. The Saints went 1-5 in MAAC play in 2024, only beating Mount St. Mary’s.

    To close out the season the Bobcats have a MAAC finals rematch against Fairfield, at Fairfield. That game could be a pivotal turning point and potentially a preview for the MAAC Tournament, which will happen a week after that match.

    Only the top four teams will make it to the Mercer County Park Tennis Center in April. Quinnipiac will look to play its way to a conference trophy for the second year in a row.

  • A young team finding its footing

    A young team finding its footing

    By: Brandon Murdock and Tyler Platz

    When you think of the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team, you typically think of a team full of veterans. They build a core and keep them together for years, often touted as a part of the reason they won the national championship in 2023.

    The 2024-25 team is a different story, as following 14 players leaving the program last season, this team is now full of younger players. The roster now includes 16 total underclassmen, including nine freshmen. 

    The lack of experience leads to growing pains, which Quinnipiac has had its share of this season.

    Following their 3-0 loss to ECAC rival Harvard on Nov. 9, the young squad fell to 3-5, something this program has not seen in years.

    Something Rand Pecknold spoke about for the majority of that rough patch, was the team needing to mature and buy-in.

    “It’s a great group of guys,” head coach Rand Pecknold said following an early season loss to Dartmouth. “We will buy in at some point.”

    Fast forward to February and it looks like this young team is starting to do just that. Following their worst loss of the season, a 5-1 defeat at home to Northeastern, the Bobcats have gone 7-2-1 with their losses coming to UConn, a near-NCAA Tournament lock and Clarkson, an ECAC squad on the tournament bubble. 

    This team has learned how to battle back, a self-imposed struggle given their inability to score first this season. Over the past month, they have only scored the opening goal twice. A young team has learned to grow up a bit, constantly needing to come back, with three come-from-behind wins in that span.

    Something like that does not come out of nowhere, it comes from leadership and the player that has stepped up the most is sophomore leading point scorer, Mason Marcellus. 

    He scored the opening goal in Friday night’s win against St. Lawrence and had three points inside the first 10 minutes of the game. 

    “With everyone leaving, I’m kind of a little louder in the locker room,” said Marcellus. “Especially playing with two freshmen, I think I’m a little louder on the bench.” 

    Marcellus finds himself on a line with first-year forward Chris Pelosi and has found ways to make him feel more comfortable in Hamden.

    “He teaches me after every shift,” said Pelosi. “I couldn’t thank him more and he just makes me better every single day.”

    Despite a quick start against St. Lawrence on Friday, Quinnipiac again fell behind early in the 3-2 overtime loss to Clarkson the following day. However, a sign of the team’s maturation came in how they responded when trailing.

    After giving up the opening goal eight minutes into the game, the Bobcats answered with goals from Pelosi and junior forward Victor Czerneckianair in just under two minutes to regain the early lead before ultimately falling in overtime.

    “You just got to put it away,” assistant coach Rick Bennett said. “It was just a hard fought game tonight, just did not go our way and sometimes that’s hockey.”

    While the team is starting to come together and play some of its best hockey, they still have a bit of an upward hill to climb. Despite being first in the ECAC hockey standings, some tough losses at the beginning of the season has the team on the bubble of making the NCAA tournament. 

    In order for the Bobcats to give themselves the best chance to make the tournament, this young group will need to avenge some old demons and take care of business in the ECAC Tournament up in Lake Placid.

    The Bobcats will be back in action on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. when they take on Union on the road.

  • Acrobatics and tumbling: A primer on Quinnipiac’s up-and-coming sport

    Acrobatics and tumbling: A primer on Quinnipiac’s up-and-coming sport

    By Judaea Ingram, Kaitlyn Grady and Sam Vetto

    Quinnipiac acrobatics and tumbling opened its season at home Feb. 2 against Morgan State. There are 13 Division I acrobatic and tumbling programs, 30 Division II programs and 11 Division III programs that all compete against each other to make it to the national championship. The regular season only consists of eight matches so each one carries a lot of high stakes. Only eight teams make the acrobatic and tumbling championships. 

    The meets

    A meet consists of six smaller events, with various point values totaling 300 points. The general meet will last about two hours, consisting of a jam-packed schedule. Each event has 3-4 heats, or sets of athletes set to complete various feats, such as flips, tosses and other acrobatic techniques. For each heat, the opposing team takes the mat first as the home team watches, then answers.

    This two-hour event consists of acro or stunting, pyramids, tosses, tumbling and the final team event set to music. The judges score right after the sequence is done, grading on all aspects of the sequence. After each event the teams are updated with their points

    Quinnipiac is returning 20 athletes from last season, where it went 7-1 and entered the NCATA Tournament as the No. 2 seed. Quinnipiac lost to No. 3 Gannon by less than two points in the semi-finals of the national championship. The team is coming off its best season, when the Bobcats clinched their first unbeaten regular season in program history. They have brought in 12 freshmen this season. Last year they had nine freshmen. 

    They have added two former Bobcats to the coaching staff. 2024 NCATA All-American Tiffany Zieba and Chloe White joined as assistant coaches. 

    Things to note

    The Bobcats tend to start off strong in their meets, sweeping their opponents in the compulsory, where their best heats are the pyramid and the toss. They also do well in the open pyramid. They were open pyramid champions in the 2024 NCATA championship. 

    Morgan State is in its second year competing, as it went 2-4 last year and are looking to improve. With a sharp focus on improving technical precision and routine difficulty, the Bears are prepared to take their performance to the next level. They have added 13 new athletes to the roster since last year.

    The Bobcats have been a dominant force in the sport for years as they made their seventh-consecutive appearance in the NCATA Final Four and were No. 2 in the organization’s preseason rankings. Quinnipiac is coached by the experienced and highly-respected Mary Ann Powers who enters her 28th season as the head coach of the program.

    The results

    The Quinnipiac squad had its first meet of the season Sunday against the HBCU Morgan State. The more-experienced Quinnipiac swept the meet, winning each of the events by margins of eight points at the largest.

    Despite its first year competing, Morgan State was able to keep the meet close, staying in fighting distance until the very end, keeping the gap close until the team event at the end. No. 2 Quinnipiac looks to take on No. 8 Iona College on Feb. 15, entering the opposing gym looking to start the year 2-0.

  • What we learned from women’s basketball’s weekend of MAAC play

    What we learned from women’s basketball’s weekend of MAAC play

    By Connor Coar & Benjamin Yeargin

    Quinnipiac women’s basketball went 1-1 this past weekend. But it isn’t an ordinary 1-1 for the Bobcats; they played MAAC No. 1 Fairfield on the road and No. 4 Siena at home. Quinnipiac lost to the Stags 72-63, but rebounded for a close 77-74 win over the Saints.

    “Even before Fairfield, we knew this was a big weekend,” sophomore forward Anna Foley said Saturday. 

    The games told us a lot about who the Bobcats are, and what they can become in the MAAC Tournament. QU Sports Page’s Connor Coar and Benjamin Yeargin offered analysis on the team’s performances in both games.

    If you want to eat with the big dogs, you have to fight like there is no tomorrow

    Coming into an opposing team’s building and trying to steal a win is never an easy task, especially when it is a team that has won 32-straight conference games dating back to last season. 

    Fairfield has been a juggernaut the last two seasons. Last season, the Stags had beaten teams by 17.3 points. That is just a few points down from the 20.2 they are beating teams by this season. Quinnipiac did not fall into that average, only losing by nine points.

    Head coach Tricia Fabbri emphasized one factor before the game: defensive transition and forcing Fairfield to play a majority of the game in the halfcourt. 

    Fairfield has 10 players who average over 15 minutes per game. This allows the team to play fast, have more fresh legs and get more possessions that they may not get with a shorter bench. 

    “They throw a lot of bodies at you,” Fabbri said Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game. “There’s also a real theme that each player wants to do. So it is going to be really predicated upon that.” 

    When the first quarter began, the five starters for Fairfield were tormenting Quinnipiac, on both sides of the ball. The Stags opened the game up on a 10-0 run through the first five minutes, forcing Fabbri to call a timeout.

    After the full timeout was finished, the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run in large part to the inside play of Ella O’Donnell. 

    Coming off of the bench, O’Donnell’s six points of the entire night in the first quarter. The only other player to come off the bench and score was Grace LaBarge, scoring in double figures for the first time she had scored in double figures since Jan. 2 up to that point. 

    Outside of the two forwards, there was zero production offensively against a team that was in the top 10 in Division I scoring defense going into the game – allowing only 53.2 points per game as of publication.

    As the game wore on, Quinnipiac handled Fairfield’s pressure better, but the amount of effort that the team had to produce was not sustainable for the entire game. 

    Guards Gal Raviv and Jackie Grisdale combined for 78 minutes Thursday, something not out of the ordinary for the two. Both are in the top 10 in minutes in Division I, the only set of teammates that can say that. 

    Throughout the season though, they never faced that much “grit,” as Fairfield’s head coach Carly Thibault-Dudonis said postgame. 

    “That is something that we have always hung our hat on,” Thibault-Dudonis said. “We have had so many people step up throughout the course of the game. You could look all the way down [the roster].”

    Raviv was picked up 94 feet most of the three quarters, which sped up the game and forced the Bobcats to commit 18 turnovers – Raviv having five of them. That’s the second-most turnovers all year, second to the 21 committed against Mount St. Mary’s on Jan. 18 – one of their three losses this year.

    “We did have some turnovers trying to get it inside, and they capitalized,” Fabbri said. 

    Quinnipiac is a good team – there is no denying that. But as this weekend showed, there needs to be steps taken with the bench production, ability to handle pressure like Fairfield gave and taking ownership of the defensive and offensive assignments. that don’t always show up on the stat sheet.

    – Connor Coar

    Individual greatness, but a lack of collectiveness against Siena

    Raviv’s 21 points wasn’t enough to propel Quinnipiac to a win at Fairfield on Thursday night. But a career-high 32 was enough Saturday afternoon.

    The Israel native shot 9-17 from the field, 4-4 from three and 10-12 at the line en route to 32 points, a career high. This is the fourth time this year that Raviv topped her career high in points and this performance puts her among the best single-game scoring performances in program history. Oh, she also had eight assists and seven rebounds, just shy of a triple-double.

    “She’s so fearless,” Fabbri said. “She’s so confident in her abilities.”

    Whatever defensive plan that Siena had for Raviv — which appeared to be switching between length in senior guard Anajah Brown and agility in graduate guard Ahniysha Jackson — didn’t work. Raviv saw there wasn’t a concrete plan, and took advantage of it.

    “You can see when someone is scared, and I feel like some of them were scared to guard me,” Raviv said. 

    Raviv gives good reason for opponents to be scared to guard her. If you contest her with length, she easily creates separation and will shoot over whatever wingspan is in front of her. If you defend her with a guard, she can beat them to the basket, mid-range and knock down her threes. 

    For whoever is making the game plan against Quinnipiac, it’s hell trying to figure out how to defend Raviv. But fortunately, as of late that’s all who they’ve had to worry about.

    Over the weekend, only Raviv and Foley (14 points on Saturday) eclipsed 14 points. Foley averaged 11.5 points per game over the two games, and senior forward Grace LaBarge put up a respectable 11 points per game too.

    But two of the three staples of Quinnipiac’s backcourt did not produce this weekend. Senior guard Jackie Grisdale put up back-to-back eight-point performances and shot a measly 3-11 from three. Sophomore guard Karson Martin had nine and five points, respectively.

    That’s been the Bobcat’s biggest weakness this year. They have had amazing individual performances — Grisdale’s 33-point outburst against Harvard, for example, — but they rarely have played as a team. 

    “I’d like to see us collectively get there, and then we’ll be up and running for the next six weeks to close out the season,” Fabbri said. 

    Individual performances can lift Quinnipiac over most of the MAAC, but those alone won’t help them hurdle Fairfield. If the Bobcats want to win the MAAC Championship and start to win their games comfortably, they need collectiveness. Raviv can carry them far, but they won’t make the promised land without a whole team effort.

    – Benjamin Yeargin

  • Five takeaways from top ECAC clash between Quinnipiac, Dartmouth

    Five takeaways from top ECAC clash between Quinnipiac, Dartmouth

    By: Cameron Levasseur and Tyler Platz

    Quinnipiac men’s hockey and Dartmouth entered Friday’s matchup in Hanover, N.H. separated by just three points atop the ECAC Hockey standings, the Big Green one win away from possession of the No. 1 spot. 

    The teams left the ice with a four-point gap between them, the Bobcats winning a back-and-forth affair 5-4 in overtime thanks to a hat trick from graduate student forward Jack Ricketts.

    With just one month left in the regular season, the win gives Quinnipiac breathing room from its biggest challenger as they look for a fifth consecutive Cleary Cup as ECAC regular season champions. 

    Here’s five takeaways from the marquee battle as both sides gear up for the home stretch. 

    Dartmouth takes tie-breaker

    Because they lost in overtime instead of regulation, the Big Green took a point from Friday’s contest. That gives them four out of a possible six points from the season series with Quinnipiac after a 4-2 win over the Bobcats in November. 

    This is the first time since 2017-18 that Dartmouth has taken the season series against Quinnipiac. More importantly, it also means the Big Green hold the tiebreaker if the teams end up deadlocked in the ECAC standings at the end of the regular season. 

    –Cameron Levasseur

    The Bobcats’ penalty kill will be a strength down the stretch

    Quinnipiac’s power play might draw more attention, as the Bobcats have a 28.9% scoring percentage with the man advantage. Still, the poise Quinnipiac displayed on its penalty kill against Dartmouth could be a key strength for this team in the final month of the regular season.

    Quinnipiac already boasts the second-best penalty-killing percentage in the ECAC, quelling power plays 88% of the time. Against Dartmouth, Quinnipiac’s penalty killers showed attention to detail, consistently clearing pucks from the defensive zone. 

    During the second penalty kill following a hooking minor by Ricketts, sophomore forward Mason Marcellus made a strong hustle play, creating a breakaway opportunity in the second period. As Ricketts’ penalty expired, the Quinnipiac defense knew to clear the puck into the offensive zone, setting up Ricketts for another shorthanded opportunity.

    -Tyler Platz

    Youth in net shows again

    No team in the ECAC has a younger goaltending presence than Quinnipiac. The only program on par is Dartmouth, whose tandem of freshman Emmett Croteau and sophomore Roan Clarke matches the Bobcats’ duo of freshman Dylan Silverstein and sophomore Matej Marinov. 

    Both sides have struggled in net at times this season, but it was for Silverstein and Quinnipiac that those issues showed the most this weekend. 

    All four goals Silverstein allowed snuck through his pads after it looked like he made the initial save. And his shake in composure nearly got worse, as a likely fifth goal off a flubbed save was prevented thanks to an early whistle from an official in the third period. 

    But it’s the first lapse in a month for Silverstein, who gave up just eight goals in his previous five starts. The Bobcats must hope that this is an outlier and not a trend. 

    –Cameron Levasseur

    Dartmouth’s big guns are dangerous 

    There are few forward lines in the ECAC that compare to Dartmouth’s top unit of juniors Cooper Flinton and Luke Haymes and sophomore Nikita Nikora. There are fewer defensive pairings that can match the offensive prowess of sophomore CJ Foley and senior Ian Pierce, with the former leading the conference in points among blueliners. 

    Put all five players on the ice together and you’ve got an attacking juggernaut that utilizes every inch of the offensive zone to work the puck from low to high and create high-quality scoring chances. 

    That’s exactly how the Big Green struck first against Quinnipiac. Nikora threaded a centering pass from the right corner to Pierce, who shoveled the puck past a defender and delivered a shot for Haymes to finish the rebound. 

    In order to beat Dartmouth, those five have to be taken out of the equation. To do that, opposing teams have to limit their time and space. The Bobcats figured that out as Friday’s game went on, a piece of the puzzle that ultimately led to the win. 

    –Cameron Levasseur

    Regroup and respond

    Each time Dartmouth scored, Quinnipiac responded with energy, refusing to let the momentum swing entirely in the Big Green’s favor.

    After Dartmouth’s first goal, scored with just over two minutes remaining in the first period, Quinnipiac quickly regrouped in the defensive zone and surged up the ice on the next rush. It created  back-to-back opportunities—a shot from first-year forward Chris Pelosi that just missed wide, followed by Marcellus firing low, stick-side off a shot from the point.

    Following Dartmouth’s second goal midway through the second period, the Bobcats won the ensuing faceoff. They then dumped the puck into Dartmouth’s defensive zone and senior defenseman Davis Pennington’s forecheck forced a turnover in front of the net. Croteau barely was able to swipe the puck off Ricketts’ stick to prevent Quinnipiac from getting right back on the board.

    Dartmouth’s third goal tied the game at 3-3 with about nine minutes left in regulation. On the following shift, Quinnipiac once again dumped the puck into the offensive zone before making a line change. As Dartmouth attempted to break out, junior forward Victor Czerneckianair disrupted the play, nearly forcing a turnover behind the net before tucking the puck out front for a scoring opportunity.

    –Tyler Platz

  • Monroe, Otieno lead way in rivalry win for Quinnipiac men’s basketball

    Monroe, Otieno lead way in rivalry win for Quinnipiac men’s basketball

    By: Toni Wetmore and Brandon Murdock

    HAMDEN — Friday night’s rivalry showdown between Quinnipiac men’s basketball and Fairfield began with junior forward Amarri Monroe and graduate student center Paul Otieno throwing their weight around against the Stags on the scoreboard, combining for 42 points. 

    It ended with the duo — and the rest of the MAAC-leading Bobcats — flexing in celebration in the stands of M&T Bank Arena after downing their Connecticut foes 81-69 and extending their winning streak to six. 

    Monroe led the way for the Bobcats as he was the game’s leading scorer with 27 points, a new career high for the third year player, his third consecutive game being Quinnipiac’s highest scorer. He also added 10 rebounds.

    Otieno also did damage in this game with a double-double of his own. He notched 15 points and 13 rebounds.

    Led by Otieno and Monroe, the Bobcats were also able to flex their muscles in this one as they outrebounded the Stags 41-28. While the Stags shooting from beyond the arc stalled, the Bobcats took advantage and went to work inside as they outscored Fairfield 28-16 in the paint.

    “There’s a stat where every game me and Paul have a double double we always win,” Monroe said. “We haven’t lost a single game when me and Paul have a double double… that’s just something me and Paul have, we’re competitive at it… We’re going to keep doing that cause we want to win, obviously so… we’re going to keep fighting for double doubles.”

    Monroe was right; when both players achieved double-doubles, the Bobcats sit at 4-0 with wins over Hofstra, Siena, Merrimack and now Fairfield.

    Monroe also had his seventh double-double of the year in a game where he was questionable to play after feeling sick earlier in the week.

    “He was sick all week, yesterday we got him for half an hour,” said head coach Tom Pecora. “He had the flu bad earlier in the week, I was concerned he wasn’t going to be able to play, he took an IV on Wednesday.”

    Otieno had his 10th double-double of the season, something that the Bobcats have been accustomed to as he is 32nd in the nation in rebounds per game, to go along with his 12.7 points per game.

    Otieno shares what the key to success is for the team:

    “I would say me and Amarri getting doubles-doubles, that’s some big points,” Otieno said. “Just bring the energy, I think, because win or lose, just be us.” 

    Led by their star upperclassmen, the Bobcats have been able to meet their high preseason expectations as they currently sit 9-1 in MAAC play, tied for first in the conference standings with Marist.

    Head coach Tom Pecora has done an impressive job of not letting the noise get to his team.

    “I worked for Coach [Rollie] Massimino, who’s a legend, and he used to have a great saying he would say ‘After Shave, if you put a little bit on it’s nice, if you put on too much it’s tacky, and if you drink it it’s poison’,” continued Pecora. “That’s what success is like for a basketball team, you’ve got to have temperament, bring them back down, let them understand we’re the hunted ones now.”

    Otieno and Monroe will try to build off this and extend the team’s winning streak to seven  when they take on Siena tomorrow, a team they have both already recorded double-doubles against in a win earlier this year.

  • Women’s basketball roundtable: How do Quinnipiac and Fairfield match up?

    Women’s basketball roundtable: How do Quinnipiac and Fairfield match up?

    By: Connor Coar, Khalise Harris, Benjamin Yeargin

    Thursday night at Fairfield’s Leo D. Mahoney Arena, Quinnipiac women’s basketball and the Stags — the top-two teams in the MAAC — will square off in their first meeting of the season. 

    This matchup will bring forth answers about the future of the MAAC come the postseason, But before the game starts, there’s also lots of questions to be answered. How will these two teams match up? Who’s the X-factor? What are the biggest questions each team needs to answer?

    What are the advantages and disadvantages of each team?

    Connor Coar: The Bobcats’ front court will have to play their best basketball of the season to keep this game close. Sophomore forward Anna Foley leads the way with 10.6 points per game, and her frontcourt counterpart, graduate forward Caranda Perea, has the abilities of a stretch four and is not scared to shoot the ball. Junior Ella O’Donnell and senior Grace LaBarge often sub in for Foley and Perea and bring similar attributes off the bench.

    A consistent rotation has worked the entire season, but don’t be surprised if there is a 50-50 split between the two groups to keep their legs fresh.

    Khalise Harris: Fairfield has been dominant at home, boasting an impressive 8-1 record at Leo D. Mahoney. The Stags thrive on home court, averaging 72 points per game while holding opponents to just 52.5 points. Their strong fandom adds to this edge. Their last home game against Manhattan was a sellout with an attendance of 3,573. Fairfield’s home dominance isn’t new either — last season, it went undefeated at home (13-0), proving just how difficult it is for opponents to win in their arena.

    Benjamin Yeargin: The Stags’ biggest advantage is their defense. Fairfield is top-three in the MAAC in every defensive category you can think of: scoring defense, opponent field-goal percentage, opponent three-point percentage and forcing turnovers. In Hamden, the Bobcats’ biggest advantage is their guard play. Senior guard Jackie Grisdale, sophomore guard Karson Martin and freshman guard Gal Raviv all sit within the top-20 of the conference in points per game at 13, 20 and fourth.

    The biggest disadvantage for Fairfield is that it doesn’t shoot free-throws well. Fairfield is tied for third-worst in the MAAC in free-throw percentage with a 66.7% integer. Sure, those free-throws don’t necessarily matter when your average margin of victory is 20.9 points, but going into close MAAC Tournament games and against competitive teams like Quinnipiac, they matter.

    For the Bobcats, it’s allowing teams to score in the paint. In its only loss of conference play, Quinnipiac was outscored 24-20 in the paint. Fairfield limits teams to access the post and have guards that aren’t afraid to drive into the paint. To win the game, the Bobcats have to outscore Fairfield in the paint. 

    FairfieldQuinnipiac
    74.8Points/G68.7
    53.8Points Allowed/G58.7
    14.3Turnovers/G12.6
    33.2%Three-point %35%
    66.7%Free Throw %74.5%
    • Bold indicates top two in MAAC

    How would you describe this game in one word?

    Coar: Revealing

    When it’s the top two teams in the league, both sides are going to find out a lot about themselves. Raviv had the second-worst day of her collegiate career shooting the ball against Mount St. Mary’s on Jan. 18, due in large part to the defensive guard play from the Mountaineers for the 42 minutes that she was on the floor. Fairfield has 10 players with over 15 minutes played per game this season. Bodies are going to get thrown at Raviv when Quinnipiac is on offense. The question lies in how the first-year will respond to the adversity.

    Fairfield lost to Indiana by 33 in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament in large part to the height differential between the two teams. The Stags will have the height disadvantage against the Bobcats on paper, so they can’t allow the Bobcats to play inside-out and continue their hot shooting from behind the arc (35%; good for second in the MAAC). 

    Harris: Tense

    A lot is on the line for both teams. A Fairfield loss would mark their first conference defeat since the 2022-2023 season while leaving them and Quinnipiac tied at the top of the MACC, matching 9-1 records. For Quinnipiac, this game is more than just a rivalry, but an opportunity to snap their two-game losing streak against Fairfield. Their last win over them dates back to March 4, 2023, in a 52-39 final.

    A victory here would boost momentum for both teams and for Quinnipiac, especially. This would set them up for a crucial showdown on Saturday against Siena, the third-ranked team in the MACC. After suffering their first conference loss against Mount St. Mary’s, Quinnipiac is hungry to get back on track, and this game could be the spark they needed to ignite their energy and reclaim their dominant form.

    Yeargin: Difficult

    This game will be a true test for both teams. Quinnipiac will have to find ways to defend the floor at all three-levels, mitigate Fairfield’s transition offense and limit its own turnovers. Pretty much, don’t allow the Stags to use their strengths. That will be tough to do; no one in the MAAC has successfully stopped them. With the combination of Fairfield’s dynamic road runners like sophomore Meghan Andersen and senior Emina Selimovic, the Stags can easily access and score at all three levels.

    But for Fairfield, the Bobcats will be their biggest test in conference play and could doom them to its first MAAC loss in nearly two years. Quinnipiac’s perimeter defense has excelled this year with Grisdale leading the helm, which will be annoying for the Stags five-out offense. Additionally, the Bobcats have turned the rock over the fewest times in the MAAC and have bigs that are larger and can guard Fairfield’s road runners at all three levels. Both teams hope to flex their strengths to a win and register a statement win in the MAAC.

    What are the biggest questions each team needs to answer?

    Coar: How does Quinnipiac manage late game situations? 

    The two Bobcats losses this season have both come in overtime. Players and coaches have said they deserved to win their first game against Miami over Thanksgiving break, giving up 16 points in the overtime frame. The ball is going to be in Raviv’s hands no matter how you want to draw it up for Quinnipiac. The decision making from her and the rest of the backcourt will be one of the biggest factors if Quinnipiac ends up with a win Thursday night. Oh yeah, this game is also on the road. 

    Yeargin: How do the Stags defend Quinnipiac’s Gal Raviv?

    Raviv has been remarkable for the Bobcats. She’s won seven MAAC Rookie of the Week awards, is fourth in the conference in points per game, seventh in assists and seventeenth in rebounding. Even in games where the entire team isn’t performing, Raviv manages to step up, making it crucial for Fairfield to stop her. The Stags could match up sophomore guard Kaety L’Amoreaux with Raviv, and clog up the lanes with their road runners so Raviv is unable to get to the basket, where she excels. No matter what the Stags strategy is, just know that in their scout they’ve highlighted Quinnipiac No. 14, and they will have a gameplan to limit Raviv’s scoring.

    Harris: How does Fairfield prepare defensively for this matchup?

    Despite Fairfield’s offensive edge — averaging 6.1 more points per game than Quinnipiac — the Bobcats hold the upper hand from beyond the arc, shooting 35% from three. Quinnipiac’s size in the front court also presents a challenge for the Stags, presenting a “mismatch” in the paint. Adding to Fairfield’s concerns, the Bobcats are efficient from the free-throw line, converting 74.5%. If the Stags can’t play disciplined defense, they risk sending Quinnipiac to the line, where the Bobcats can capitalize and pad their scoring.

    Who is the X-factor of this matchup?

    Coar: Quinnipiac sophomore guard Paige Girardi. The second year has seen a significant drop off in minutes in her second season compared to her first year of almost 14 minutes per game. Due in large part to the team being healthy again, Girardi has played her role with little to no errors. Many times spelling Raviv or senior guard Jackie Grisdale, running the second unit with only six turnovers the entire year. The two starters, Raviv and Grisdale, are both in the top ten in the entire country in minutes, but when Girardi gets into the game, limiting turnovers against the fast paced Stags will be key.

    Yeargin: Fairfield sophomore guard Kaety L’Amoreaux. Since the reigning MAAC Player of the Year Janelle Brown went down with a season-ending ACL injury, L’Amoreaux has been forced to step up. She has. Since Brown’s injury, L’Amoreaux is averaging 14.9 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game and 4.8 assists per game. And she has to continue to do so against Quinnipiac. She’ll face a difficult defensive matchup whether she is guarded by Grisdale, Raviv or Martin and she’ll have to guard one of those three too. For the Stags to succeed, they have to limit the Bobcats guards from scoring and L’Amoreaux should be the center of that gameplan.

    Harris: Quinnipiac sophomore guard Karson Martin. With guard Jackie Grisdale’s season-ending injury in 2023, Martin was thrust into a significant role during her first year. She appeared in 24 games last season, starting 21, and she has played and started in all 18 games this season. With defenses primarily focused on other playmakers, including Raviv, Karson takes advantage of the extra space, making her a silent threat on the court. She currently sits third on the team in three-pointers made, with 17 this season, 30 assists and 21 steals so far.