QU Women's Lacrosse Plays Final Non-Conference Game At UMass-Lowell Wednesday

Wednesday, March 22

Cushing Field Complex - Lowell, MA

3:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

UMass Lowell

QU Women's Lacrosse Plays Final Non-Conference Game At UMass-Lowell Wednesday

3/21/2017 11:08:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: QU Sports Information

Quinnipiac Bobcats (1-6, 0-0 MAAC) at
UMass Lowell River Hawks (3-2, 0-0 America East)
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 – 3:00 PM
Cushing Field – Lowell, MA
All-Time Series vs. UMass Lowell: QU Leads 2-0

Follow the Game
Live Stats: GoRiverHawks.com
Live Video: AmericaEast.com
Twitter: @QU_WLAX

The Quinnipiac women's lacrosse team plays its final non-conference game of the season when it has a road contest on Wednesday at UMass-Lowell, beginning at 3 p.m. The Bobcats are playing their fourth road game in a 10-day span, which included a West Coast trip to face UC Davis and Fresno State, followed less than 48 hours later by a road game on Long Island against Hofstra on Saturday.

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell comes into the week with a 3-2 record, winning its last three games after an 0-2 start. After beginning the year with losses to Dartmouth and Boston University, the River Hawks defeated MAAC opponent Iona 11-6, and then defeated Army West Point 13-6 and Sacred Heart 10-8. Rebecca Idson has been the top goal-scorer for UMass-Lowell this season with 12, while Kendyl Finelli has five goals and a team-high eight assists. Jane Dudley has also been a big part of the team's offense with nine goals so far this year. Courtney Barnett has played every minute in goal for the River Hawks and has an 8.60 goals against average and a .506 save percentage.

LAST TIME OUT VS. UMASS LOWELL (QUINNIPIAC 7-4)
A stifling defensive outing capped by a few timely goals late helped secure a 7-4 win for the Quinnipiac women's lacrosse team over UMass Lowell at the QU Lacrosse Turf Field in the Bobcats' 2016 home opener. Quinnipiac's defense, led by a cohesive team defensive approach, held the River Hawks to just four goals (season-low). The four-goal total also standing as the fewest goals allowed by the Bobcats in a game since defeating Monmouth on a neutral field, 8-4, back on April 23, 2010 (86 games ago). Goalkeeper Kyle Larkin (Holbrook, New York) was the beneficiary of a great defensive effort in front of her in the cage as she tallied eight saves on 12 UMass Lowell shots-on-goal throughout the 60 minutes of play as she picked up her second straight win. Leading that Bobcat defensive pressure was the tandem of senior Leah Walter (Londonderry, New Hampshire) and Kiera Kelly (West Islip, New York) who combined to hold the top three River Hawk scorers entering today (Noelle Lambert, Kristina Keith and Kelly Moran) to no points throughout the 60 minutes of action. Walter tied her career-high in ground balls (five) and caused turnovers (three) while Kiera Kelly snagged four ground balls and tied her career-high with four caused turnovers. Aileen Carey (Long Beach, New York) had a first-half hat trick offensively, scoring consecutive goals less than four minutes apart as she took a pair of nice feeds, first from Devin Kelly followed by a Ellie Swenson (Ipswich, Massachusetts) helper, to give the Bobcats a four-goal advantage heading into halftime.

SENIOR MOMENT
Alex Hlesciak played the game of her life against Fresno State (3/16) as the senior racked up a career high five goals in a 9-8 loss to the Bulldogs. In 45 games prior to the match at Fresno State, Hlesciak tallied a single-game high of two goals on six different occasions. She exploded for five goals, more than double her previous career-best, while scoring four straight goals for the Bobcats. Hlesciak's five-goal spree bumps her season total up to 10, leading the team in that category.

NEW SEASON…NEW TEAM
Trailing by three in the second half, Quinnipiac answered with five straight goals to catapult the Bobcats out front and ultimately to a season-opening 10-9 victory over CCSU (2/18). A resounding come-from-behind victory to open the career of first-year head coach Tanya Kotowicz at Quinnipiac, the victory stands as the first win in a season opener for the Bobcats since defeating UConn, 11-10, all the way back in the 2009 season (seven straight season-opening losses prior to tonight's win). Incredibly, Quinnipiac's win marks just the fourth victory in a season opener in the 19 seasons since joining the NCAA Div. I ranks (1999).

SHUTTING THE DOOR
Junior goalkeeper Kyle Larkin has played some of the best lacrosse of her career in the last week as she racked up a career high 16 saves in a loss to UC Davis (3/12) and then passed that with 19 saves in a loss to Hofstra (3/18). Larkin posted 11 of her 16 saves in the first half alone against UC Davis, surpassing her previous career high of 14 from a road game at Siena last season, and then had 11 of her 19 saves against Hofstra in the second half. Larkin has been stellar over the last three games as she has accumulated 46 saves (15.3 per game) over that span, giving her 11 double digit save outings for her career.

INSTANT IMPACT
Quinnipiac fought hard in a 12-8 non-conference road loss to Sacred Heart (3/1), rattling off four straight goals to trail just 8-7 with 8:27 remaining and a huge spark in the run came from a Bobcat making her first career appearance. Missing the entire 2016 season and the first two games of 2017 due to injury, sophomore Kaitlin Unser took the field for the first time in her career against the Pioneers and immediately scored consecutive goals within the 4-0 run. Unser's goal scoring ability seen frequently in high school (139 career goals for Smithtown High School in New York) was ever-present in her first collegiate appearance.

COMEBACK CATS
The thunderous three-goal second half comeback win over CCSU (2/18) marked the first time Quinnipiac overcame a three-goal deficit to win since falling behind 3-0 against Iona to come back and win 15-9 on April 9, 2014 (36 games ago). The last time Quinnipiac overcame a three-goal second half deficit came against Manhattan on March 29, 2014 (38 games ago) as the Bobcats trailed 10-6 before coming all the way back to win 12-11.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Quinnipiac scored 10 goals in their season-opening victory over CCSU, a plateau the Bobcats reached only once in 16 games last season. Out of the 10 total goals scored, six were tallied by freshmen (Ashley Bobinski 4, Kayla Moreau 1, Brianna Fitzgerald) while nine were tallied by underclassmen (sophomore Allison Kuhn scored three goals). As a team, Quinnipiac posted 17 total points (10 goals, seven assists), 12 of which (70.6 percent) were scored by underclassmen.

SECOND HALF SUCCESS
Trailing 7-5 at the half, Quinnipiac stepped up their play considerably in the second half, outscoring CCSU 5-2 in the final 30 minutes of play to secure the come-from-behind 10-9 victory (2/18). Keying a 5-0 second half run that paved the way to victory was the Bobcat defense, who notched seven of the 10 total team saves in the second half alone. Goalkeeper Kyle Larkin tallied nine saves in the cage (six in the second half), including four straight (two on free position attempts) over a span of 4+ minutes down the stretch with the Bobcats leading by two. Brianna Fitzgerald also made a stellar defensive play, diving in front of a free position shot after Larkin was whistled for a foul and had to leave her cage, late in the game to preserve the thrilling win.

INSTANT IMPACT
Ashley Bobinski's first career game certainly stands out as one to remember as she scored four goals on four shots to make her the highest-scoring rookie in her debut as a Bobcat in program history. The last rookie to post a hat trick in her debut with Quinnipiac came back in 2012 as Kyra Ochwat tallied three goals against UConn. Bobinski scored three times, securing her hat trick after 17 minutes of play, which she added one more in the second half to give her a team-leading four tallies while igniting the game-deciding 5-0 second half run. Bobinski also had a two-goal, one-assist performance to have a hand in three of Quinnipiac's four goals in a loss at Hofstra (3/18).

KUHN COMING THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH
Allison Kuhn was incredibly clutch for the Bobcats, either scoring or assisting on four of five unanswered goals for Quinnipiac including scoring the ultimate game-winner that put the Bobcats ahead 10-8 against CCSU (2/18). The Bobcats' leading returning scorer from last season (27 points – 19 goals, eight assists) tied for the team-lead in points in the victory while she added two draw controls and one caused turnover.

NEW LEADERSHIP
The 2017 season marks the first year under the leadership of new head coach Tanya Kotowicz. Kotowicz comes to Quinnipiac with a wealth of NCAA Division I women's lacrosse coaching experience, most recently as the head coach at Central Connecticut State University for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Before being hired as the CCSU head coach, Kotowicz was the top assistant at Yale from 2012 through 2014 and Hofstra from 2008 through 2012. Before taking the position at Hofstra, Kotowicz was the head coach at Quinnipiac's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe Marist in 2008 and an assistant at Saint Mary's College of California from 2006 to 2008. Kotowicz played collegiately at UConn, serving as a two-time team captain in 2004 and 2005, leading the program to an ECAC Championship in 2005.