Freshman Kelly Bruneau had a breakthrough performance with three goals and three assists for six points to help lead the Quinnipiac University women's lacrosse team to a 14-6 victory over Binghamton on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomores Nicole Fiore and Ashley Valentine also had hat tricks. Danie Caro got a total team effort on all cylinders to win the game. Quinnipiac had 26 caused turnovers which came from 13 players, 12 draw controls coming from 11 players and 32 ground balls distributed amongst 15 players.

Quinnipiac improves to 2-1 overall, 0-0 in NEC play. Binghamton drops to 0-3, 0-0 in America East play.

Binghamton got on the scoreboard first when Kate Gromatsky found Julia Demuth at 26:03. The Bearcats lead would not last for long as the Bobcats went on a scoring frenzy with eight consecutive goals to take a lead they would not relinquish.

Junior Katy Delagi got the scoring started on a free position shot at 23:48. Freshman Bruneau then found classmate Brittany Hauser for her first career goal at 21:50 to give the Bobcats the lead for good.

Valentine set up classmate Meghan Latonick at 18:19 and sophomore Tiffany Manzi and freshman Lyndsey Banach followed with goals coming at 15:20 and 13:02. Bruneau then set up Valentine at 8:48 to make it 6-1 Bobcats.

Fiore followed up with a free position shot that found the back of the net at 8:10. Less than a minute later, Banach set up Bruneau for her first career goal at 7:47 to make it 8-1 in favor of Quinnipiac.

Binghamton's Kelly Cleary-Hammarstedt broke up Quinnipiac's streak of eight consecutive goals to make the score 8-2 with 41 seconds remaining in the first half. But Quinnipiac took one more stand before the recess when Fiore banged home an unassisted goal with four ticks left on the clock. Nobody picked up the ensuing draw control and Quinnipiac was in command with a 9-2 lead at the half.

Binghamton came back hungry in the second half and scored three consecutive goals to close the gap at 9-5. Scores came from Erika Travis, Gromatsky and Danielle Edwards.

Quinnipiac responded with two more goals to put an end to the Bearcats' comeback bid. Bruneau set up her third goal of the afternoon when she found Valentine at 17:57. The freshman from nearby Cheshire then shot the ball past the Binghamton goaltender for her second score of the day at 12:49 to give the Bobcats an 11-5 lead.

Binghamton's Kelsey Piper scored at 9:54 to make it 11-6, but that was all the Bearcats had left.

Quinnipiac closed out the game with three unanswered goals. A;ll three players who scored in a span of three minutes - Valentine, Fiore and Bruneau, completed hat tricks. Katie Latonick had her first career point on Valentine's goal and freshman Kaitlyn Vennard also had a helper.

Quinnipiac's Hannah Nelson made eight saves on 14 chances and finished with a save percentage over .500 for the second time in three career games. Binghamton's Sandra Alvarez stopped 10 shots on 24 opportunities.

In addition to the scoreboard, Quinnipiac had the upper hand in the other three major statistical categories. The Bobcats won the ground game 32-20 and took 12 of the 21 draw controls. The Bobcats collectively caused the Bearcats to turn the ball over 26 times while Binghamton only forced 14 caused turnovers.

Vennard led the team with four caused turnovers while four players - Valentine, Delagi, Katie Latonick and Lyndsey Banach - each had three caused turnovers. Quinnipiac broke up 14 of Binghamton's clear attempts and held the Bearcats to a conversion rate of 54.8 percent.

Also defensively, Jamie Zeitler held Binghamton's leading scorer in check for most of the game. Danielle Edwards averaged over two goals entering today's action before being held to just one today.

The Bobcats begin a three-game stretch away from home when they visit the La Salle Explorers of the Atlantic 10 Conference on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.

2007-03-10