Two Ties on the Road Put Quinnipiac Opponents on Notice
Two Ties on the Road Put Quinnipiac Opponents on Notice
Quinnipiac's opening two weeks of NIRA competition looked pretty imposing, one the road at Brown and Harvard.
You'd have easily forgiven the Bobcats for losing both of those games, but instead they came away with zero losses. OK, also zero wins as, astonishingly, Quinnipiac tied both games, locking up with Brown 17-17 and then tying the defending champs 20-20 this past Friday night.
Is this a harbinger of bigger things to come? Quite possibly. Quinnipiac gets a week off before traveling to Navy September 21, a game they could well be favored to win now. They follow that up with a non-conference game against Penn State, and then four games on the trot against Princeton, AIC, Army, and Dartmouth. They wrap up the regular season November 2 at Sacred Heart.
Is every fixture now in play? Probably. If they can tie a Harvard team that returns most of its 2023 NIRA-winning squad, in Cambridge, they could beat Princeton, Army, and even Dartmouth at home.
Now would be a good time to remember that the playoff matchups are decided through a Power Ratings system that takes into account strength of schedule. But it's still likely that the Quinnipiac-Sacred Heart matchup in November will be huge.
Quinnipiac Head Coach Becky Carlson wouldn't have it any other way.
"We have assembled a rockstar cast for this year’s NIRA show where our focus has been on the defensive end to really dial into our opportunities to capitalize on each of players’ strengths," Carlson told GRR. "Defensive line speed as well as our integrity surrounding the breakdown and cutting off the edges, were critical for us in the Harvard match, but more importantly will continue to be throughout the remainder of our schedule. We are laser-focused on being in the hunt in November."
In the hunt indeed. Bobcats are pretty good hunters.
Quinnipiac is led by a cadre of talented veterans including Kat Storey, Anna Van Dyk, Fodhla Ni Bhraonain, and Riva van der valk. First-year player Anna Wright (Land Park Harlequins, California) has given the backline a nice boost and has been a presence on defense as well.
The scoring has been spread out in the first two games. 2023-24 MA Sorensen nominee Storey (Downingtown, RugbyPA) leads the team with two tries and Ni Bhraonain (Galway, Ireland) has seven points from the boot, but then it's Layla Cox (West Carroll, Md.), Kelsey Thomas (Ravenwood, Tenn.), Avan O'Malley (Killarney, Ireland), and Lucy Lamborn (Carondelet HS, California) all with one try each.
That's what Carlson wants to see.
"We are a young squad with the first-year class outnumbering all the others, so it’s an adjustment on many levels of impact from both a game plan and cultural perspective," the coach said. "I would venture to guess that many were surprised by our result against Harvard, but after preseason and our first match up against Brown, we had no doubts in what we are capable of."
The NIRA Power Ratings won't be published until after Week 3, but it's likely that we will see Quinnipiac near the top, but not quite at the top. Harvard has a win on their books so they are probably going to be higher than Quinnipiac, while Sacred Heard and Dartmouth could also be pushing. But the Bobcats should be right there, challenging the top.
