Quinnipiac University
Brown
Women's Hockey Opens ECAC Play Against Brown and Yale Friday
10/25/2018 8:55:00 PM | Women's Ice Hockey
NOTES
HAMDEN, Conn. - The Quinnipiac women's ice hockey team will begin ECAC Hockey play on Friday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. against the Brown Bears. The Bobcats will continue the homestand against Yale on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. Both games will be played at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena at the People's United Center in Hamden, Conn.
Scouting Brown
The Bears stand at 3-0-0 (0-0-0 ECAC) after three non-conference games against Holy Cross and UConn. Brown defeated the Crusaders, 3-1 and 4-0, the Huskies, 5-3. Freshman Lizzy Gross leads the Bears with six points on four goals and two assists.
Calla Isaac has played two games in the net for the Bears recording one shutout, a .982 save percentage and 0.50 GAA.
Notes on Yale
Yale opened the 2018-19 season with an exhibition game against McGill and tied, 4-4. Greta Skarzynski led the Bulldogs last season with 26 points on 14 goals and 12 assists. Tera Hofmann and Gianna Meloni split time for the Bulldogs in the net last year and both return for the 2018-19 season.
Bobcats' Last Time Out
Quinninpiac traveled to Burlington, Vt., to face the Vermont Catamounts for two. The Bobcats tied both games, 1-1 and 3-3, after extra time. Taylor House led the Bobcats with three points on two goals and one assist. Freshman Courtney Vorster scored the game-tying goal in the second game, and Randi Marcon also netted her second goal of the season.
ECAC Honors
Taylor House and Courtney Vorster each received ECAC Honors after play from Oct. 8-14. House was named ECAC Player of the Week and Vorster earned the Rookie of the Week honor.
Samo Headed to Saskatchewan
Senior captain Melissa Samoskevich was named to the U.S. Women's National Team Roster for the 2018 Four Nations Cup, which will take place Nov. 6-10. The 23-player national team will compete against Canada, Sweden and Finland in SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Samoskevich is just the second Bobcat to make the U.S. senior national team along with Shiann Darkangelo, who played with the team in the 2014 and 2016 Four Nations Cup.
Last Season
The Bobcats are coming off a fifth-place finish in ECAC Hockey where their season came to an end in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals against No. 5 seed Saint Lawrence Saints. Quinnipiac finished with a 12-9-1 mark in league play but were 16-17-3 overall on the season. One of the highlights of the season was a 3-2 victory in overtime at Clarkson, who went on to win the ECAC Hockey Championship in addition to the National Championship.
ECAC Hockey Preseason Poll
Quinnipiac was picked to finish fifth in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Poll, as selected by the league's coaches earlier this offseason. The Bobcats, picked tied for fifth with St. Lawrence with 75 points, have finished in the top five in the league every season since the 2012-13 season.
Samo's Summer
Melissa Samoskevich had a busy summer on the ice as she was invited to the USA Hockey National Women's Festival this summer where she was ultimately selected to the United States U-22 National Select Team to compete in a three-game series against Canada's National Development team, featuring Kati Tabin. Following that camp, Samoskevich was invited to USA Hockey's National Team Evaluation Camp, vying for a spot on the senior national team.
Tabin's Too
Kati Tabin also had a busy summer as she attended Canada's National Development Team Camp, where she was selected to compete in that three-game series against the United States in August. Prior to this summer, Tabin had never been invited to a Hockey Canada camp. Recently, Tabin was invited to Hockey Canada's National Team Fall Festival where she competed for a spot on the Canada National Women's Hockey Team.
Newcomers Get Invited
Newcomer Zoe Boyd received a late invite to Canada's National Team Development camp over the summer where she competed against the top players in her age group. In addition to Boyd, fellow freshman Lexie Adzija was also invited but was unable to attend the camp.
Mazzotta's Busy
Assistant coach Amanda Mazzotta has also been involved with a lot of Hockey Canada work over the summer as she is once again a goaltending consultant with the National Development Team. She attended camp this summer and was also serving in the same capacity at Hockey Canada's National Fall Festival. In addition to her work on the ice, Mazzotta was invited to speak at a Hockey Canada event in her hometown of London, Ontario, this summer.
Getting it Done
The Bobcats continue to be among the best teams in the classroom in ECAC Hockey, with a league-high 10 players named as All-American Scholars by the American Hockey Coaches Association. To be eligible, student-athletes must have attained a 3.6 GPA and played in 40 percent of their team's games. Quinnipiac also had 18 players named to the ECAC Hockey All-Academic Team and Kenzie Lancaster was recognized on the Commissioner's List, honoring one player for each team as its top scholar.
New Name, Same Home
This summer, Quinnipiac University announced a partnership with People's United Bank, launching a 10-year agreement to a partnership between the bank and the university with the arena renamed the People's United Center. The hockey rink will still be called the Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena.
Clarkson Cup Champs
A couple of Bobcat alums made a splash this summer as Nicole Brown '16 and Nicole Kosta '16 won the CWHL's Clarkson Cup with the Markham Thunder. Brown netted the opening goal of the championship game while Kosta recorded both assists, including the overtime game-winner, of their 2-1 championship win over the Kunlan Red Star and former teammate Shiann Darkangelo '15.
New Faces
Quinnipiac has six newcomers to the program for the 2018-19 season: Lexie Adzija, Logan Angers, Zoe Boyd, Katie Huntington, Courtney Vorster and Gabby Vitelli. Among this group; Adzija, Angers, Boyd and Vorster all competed for the Canada U-18 National Team last season to join five other players who have played for their national team at one level or another.
Old Faces
Quinnipiac returns an excellent core from the past season, highlighted by leading scorer Melissa Samoskevich who netted 15 goals and totaled 25 points in 2017-18. The Bobcats return 95 percent (62 of 65 goals) of their scoring from last season and all four of their players who had at least eight goals last season: Melissa Samoskevich (15), Brooke Bonsteel (10), Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout (9) and MacKenzie Lancaster (8). The Bobcats also return their two primary goaltenders last season in Abbie Ives and Allison Small. Ives posted a 1.78 GAA and .921 save percentage on her way to a 14-13-3 record with three shutouts while Ives was 2-4-0 with a 2.09 GAA and .919 save percentage in nine games with seven starts.
