ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 2019–20 WHAT’S INSIDE Athletic Director’s Message 4 Academic Success 6 On the Front Lines 8 Letters to Bobcat Nation 10 Salute to Our Graduates 12 Degrees of Success 13 The BOOMIES 16 Under Contract 18 Looking Ahead 20 One Community 22 ATHLETIC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE As we take time to reflect on another highly successful 2019–20 academic year, I’m confident in our demonstrated ability as coaches and student-athletes to overcome adversity and strive it is impossible to forget its abrupt and unconventional ending. In an instant, toward a common goal. As strategic thinkers, we won’t allow obstacles to interrupt our mission. Our need to our priorities shifted from the pursuit of academic excellence and athletic adapt has never been greater, and I’m positive we are up to the challenge. achievement to a collective focus on battling a global pandemic. As an athletic department, I believe we have an obligation to set a positive example for the entire university. This summer, the university community was actively engaged in extensive We must embrace a shared responsibility to act as leaders on our campus. It is my hope that we will always planning efforts to ensure our successful return to campus. At the same time, strive to be part of the solution. I know our student-athletes will always lead by example, whether it’s wearing our athletic administrators, coaches, trainers and support staff worked tirelessly a mask around campus, practicing social distancing, conducting themselves appropriately in the community to establish protocols and guidelines designed to allow for the safe pursuit or engaging in discussions about social issues. of academic and athletic goals. Our top priority remains clear — to create an environment that will nurture the physical, mental and emotional needs of our As we navigate this shared experience, I call on the entire Bobcat community to rally around our coaches and student-athletes. student-athletes. Our experience will look vastly different, but our goals remain the same. We will compete for championships, be leaders in our community and achieve at the highest academic level. Together, we will Since last March, we’ve all faced numerous challenges. Many of our student-athletes had their seasons cut grow stronger from this journey. short and did not have the opportunity to compete for a conference championship and a subsequent trip to the NCAA tournament. Additionally, we return for the 2020–21 academic year knowing that competition for our It is my sincere hope that we will have the opportunity to gather this year to cheer on our Bobcats. fall sports programs has been canceled. It is our goal to reexamine the opportunities for a spring competitive Until then, stay safe and healthy! season for our fall sports based on institutional and state guidelines. Sincerely, Greg J. Amodio Director of Athletics More than 450 Quinnipiac student-athletes gathered for the 2019–20 group photo on 4 ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT Lender Court at the People’s United Center. ACADEMIC SUCCESS Quinnipiac’s student-athletes work hard to excel in the classroom. Once again, the Bobcats earned high marks across the athletic department’s 21 Division I programs. In addition to their athletic and academic commitments, many of them took part in internships, Greek life and extracurricular activities, such as Taylor Herd ’20, a journalism major, started campus media. every game for the women’s basketball team as a senior. She also graduated with a 3.9 GPA and earned valuable career TEAM GPA BY SPORT experience as a reporter for Q30, the ERALL GP OV A student-run TV station. WOMEN’S GOLF 3.97 WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY 3.84 WOMEN’S TENNIS 3.84 3.67 F O S R E MEN’S ICE HOCKEY 3.80 T ST E U HL DENTAT VOLLEYBALL 3.78 WOMEN’S SOCCER 3.77 FIELD HOCKEY 3.72 % WOMEN’S LACROSSE 3.72 19 4.0 MEN’S TENNIS 3.72 91 Student- GPA Athletes WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY 3.70 WOMEN’S INDOOR/OUTDOORTRACK 3.69 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY 3.68 SOFTBALL 3.67 % MADE 55 DEAN’S BASEBALL 3.64 257 Student- LIST ACROBATICS AND TUMBLING 3.63 Athletes WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 3.56 MEN’S SOCCER 3.55 % WOMEN’S RUGBY 3.53 94 3.0 MEN’S LACROSSE 3.47 438 Student- GPA Athletes OR HIGHER MEN’S BASKETBALL 3.38 6 ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT ON THE FRONT LINES Krystal Lazos ’10, Chelsea Smith ’12, Stephanie Palange ’15 and Jenny Mears ’16, MHS ’18, are among the Quinnipiac Athletics alumni working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. They represent the countless QU alumni whose enduring commitment during this outbreak has demonstrated how we are Bobcat Strong. Lazos, a former member of the women’s Palange, a former member of the basketball program, works as a clinical acrobatics and tumbling program, is a director at Cooper University Health Care in registered nurse at Sister Caritas Cancer New Jersey. “Many of the skills I learned as a Center at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, QU athlete have proven to be vital during these Massachusetts. “While our studies were very unprecedented times,” she said. “Perseverance, important to us,” Palange said in a videotaped resilience and teamwork have helped me lead my unit message in Letters to Bobcat Nation, “a couple of things in this daily fight. The continual support from the Bobcat I will carry with me through life, especially in times like this, family means more than I can describe.” are resilience and being a good teammate. No textbook will ever teach you these things, but my experience at Quinnipiac certainly did.” Smith, a former member of the women’s Mears, who competed in soccer as soccer program, is a certified registered well as track and field at Quinnipiac, nurse anesthetist at Brigham and Women’s is a physician assistant working in Hospital in Boston. She is an advanced critical care at one of New York City’s practitioner of airway management, critical largest health care systems. At the height of care and anesthesia. “While this is a difficult time the pandemic, Mears wrote in Letters to Bobcat for us anesthesia providers, literally in the face of Nation, “Our neuro ICU has been turned into a the pandemic, we feel nothing but support from our COVID-only unit and we are working tirelessly… community, family and friends,” Smith wrote in Letters but we’re doing the best we can!” to Bobcat Nation this spring. “We will get through this and come out stronger on the other side. Thank you to Quinnipiac for your support of your alumni in the health care field.” 8 ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 9 LETTERS TO “The team is always more important than the individual, and that is why we understand the sacrifice we all need to make right now. Our goals are becoming BOBCAT clearer. Our work has more purpose. Our regrets have become our motivation. And we will be back.” NATION TANYA KOTOWICZ Women’s Lacrosse head coach As the coronavirus pandemic swept across Connecticut and the Watch the world, coaches, alumni and student-athletes at Quinnipiac addressed video here: strength, community and inspiration in personalized letters to Bobcat “Let’s take this opportunity and think about the Nation. While some alumni worked on the front lines of the global positive impact we can still make on our own life pandemic, other members of the Quinnipiac family shared reflections and on others’ lives within these unique parameters.” of unity, courage and resilience. Excerpts from some of these letters MASON POLI Men’s Lacrosse head coach were shared in a video about how we are Bobcat Strong. go.qu.edu/bsv “In life, we are called individually for a specific purpose, “Try to appreciate every moment you have doing the but we are also called collectively. And in order for us things you love with the people who mean the most as individuals to contribute to that greater purpose, to you.” we need to get out of ourselves and give particular parts of ourselves to that purpose.” RACHEL MARCHUK ’20 Softball TAYLOR HERD ’20 Women’s Basketball “No matter how far apart we are from each other, our “While we remain separated and isolated, you are not Bobcat family remains strong all across the globe, alone. We’re one big, united Bobcat family. We’re all and we will rise to this challenge together.” in this together, and you’ll never walk alone. We are Bobcat Strong.” JACOB RIGONI ’21 Men’s Basketball ERIC DA COSTA Men’s Soccer head coach 10 ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 11 SALUTE DEGREES OF TO OUR GRADUATES SUCCESS MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 2020 FALL STUDENT-ATHLETES Men’s Cross Country Men’s Soccer Matthew Allen Christian Casagranda Tommy Consalvo Romain Daniellou Michael Kiernan Nate Gaw Joseph Lazzaro Jeppe Haehre Women’s Cross Country Chrysostomos Iakovidis Kaitlin Bakas Conor McCoy Meghan Curtin Eamon Whelan Amy Laverty More than 100 student-athletes Women’s Soccer earned bachelor’s and master’s Ellie Songer Charlotte Edmunds degrees this year. Quinnipiac’s Morgan Voight Estefy Estrada Zavala facilities team honored all of the university’s graduates with this Sara Wilcox Kelsey Goldring tribute on the quad. Field Hockey Ally Grunstein Amanda Blum Olivia Myszewski Sarah Denion Mackenzie Tibball Molly Jannell Valerie Perkins Inès Ruiz Martinez Bianca Strubbe Brooke Whipkey Rugby Destiny Henry Mikah Maples Meg Rose Niamh Savage Emma Shipton 12 ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 13 WINTER STUDENT-ATHLETES SPRING STUDENT-ATHLETES Acrobatics and Tumbling Women’s Ice Hockey Baseball Women’s Lacrosse Nicole Chamberlain Brooke Bonsteel Blake DeCarr Ashley Bobinski Karen DeFilippo Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout Colin Donnelly Victoria