NEW HAVEN, Conn. (October 1, 2023) – It was an emotional Sunday afternoon at Johnson Field, as the Sacred Heart University field hockey team honored a member of its own family. Prior to the start of their game against Quinnipiac, the Pioneers retired the number 30 jersey, in honor of Anna Buhrmann, who saw her career cut short in March, when she was tragically paralyzed during a spring break ski trip to Colorado. Following the ceremony, SHU used a third-quarter goal from Buhrmann's classmate, Amelia Pellegrini (Wallingford, Pa.), to deal the Bobcats a 2-1 defeat.
 
For SHU (2-6), it marked the first win over current Big East member Quinnipiac since 2008, when the Bobcats were still a member of the Northeast Conference. QU had won the previous nine meetings between the intrastate foes. Sacred Heart's most recent win against a Big East program had been a 2-1 victory against Villanova in 2018.
 
After the pregame festivities wrapped up, it was visiting Quinnipiac (4-5) which opened the scoring, just 5:42 into the proceedings. Samantha Maresca (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) made the initial save on the play, against Lucia Pompeo, but the rebound kicked out into the right side of the circle for Emilia Massarelli. Massarelli found a lane through traffic from distance, and tucked her team-leading sixth goal of the season inside the left post.
 
The Pios responded just 28 seconds later, on a corner play in the seventh minute. The corner unit ran a play to get the ball on the stick of Mikayla VanHorn (Old Bridge, N.J.), headed to the right inside the top of the circle. VanHorn dished back against the flow of the play, to the left for Isabelle Chamberlain (North Yorkshire, United Kingdom). The latter stepped into a shot and drove home her team-leading fifth of the campaign to even things up.
 
The remainder of the first half went without further scoring. In fact, the only goal left in the game came just on the other side of halftime, 127 seconds into the third quarter. The Pioneers earned back-to-back corners, the second of which yielded a flurry of action inside the Quinnipiac circle. Ally Frampton (Somerdale, N.J.) had the initial shot on the play, from the right side. QU keeper Cristina Torres was able to get her pad to the shot, but Pellegrini was on the scene in front of the left post to clean up the rebound for her first collegiate goal.
 
Maresca (2-6) finished with 11 saves – her second double-digit outing of the year – against 12 shots on pick up the win in front of the SHU cage. Torres (4-5) made five stops against seven shots for Quinnipiac.
 
The Pios have a rare midweek contest on the docket this week, as they travel to LIU on Wednesday to make up a game which was postponed on Friday. Game time is set for noon at BFCU Stadium in Brookville, N.Y. It's the start of a three-game week for SHU, which will travel to Fairfield on Friday and host Wagner on Sunday.