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Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Preview: Quinnipiac

We’re breaking down each and every NCAA D1 team one by one to get prepped for the rapidly approaching season. Welcome back to the Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Previews! We move another spot down the list and the Quinnipiac Bobcats, located in Hamden, CT, are up for Preview!

Quinnipiac went 2-11 in 2012 in Head Coach Eric Fekete’s 11th year, and the record marked a major step back from their 2011 campaign, where the Bobcats went 7-7 and split the NEC regular season title. 2010 saw Quinnipiac go 8-6, and the Bobcats definitely want to get back to that level this year. There has been an increased focus on conditioning and fundamental skill development this fall, as Coach Fekete and his squad know that the little things can make all the difference.

The Bobcats open up their 2013 schedule with a tough contest against Brown. Then they move on to more winnable games against Detroit, Vermont, and Providence, before taking on a dangerous Hartford squad. Two tough games follow that in Fairfield and Bryant, which is their NEC opener. They play the rest of their NEC schedule, and Harvard, to close out the regular season.

On offense, Qunnipiac should be just fine. If you scored more than 5 points for the Bobcats last year, you’re back, and ready to roll. Mike Saql, Matt Diehl, Dylan Webster, Basil Kostaras, Brendan Wilbur, Pat Corcoran, Brandon Kuring, and Jay Binkowski ALL return for 2013… that’s 8 guys and 168 points. Impressive. Add in some younger talent and the Bobcats should be able to score some more goals. Dylan Webster is also a pretty talented face off guy.

At first, the goalie situation looks a little dire, because Dylan Torey is gone, and he started every game last year. But then you realize that Gill Conners is on the roster, and that he was a stud keeper for Onondaga CC, and the worry starts to go away. There are three other keepers on the roster, but Conners can play like a monster, so I’d expect him to start, and have a positive impact.

The long pole positions are really the one place where I have real concern for the Bobcats. Including LSMs, Quinnipiac only has 9 longsticks on their roster. Carmen French has some experience at LSM and Greg Pendergast returns after starting every game in 2012. Evan Weldon saw some time last year, but other than that, Quinnipiac doesn’t have a ton of returning guys. Each of Quinnipiac’s three freshman poles are around 6’1″ and 200 pounds, and one may need to step in right away.

Overall, Quinnipiac has a lot of returning talent on offense, and should be really solid in net. If their poles can come along quickly, they could easily get back to a .500 mark by the end of the season. Although there are a couple of seniors on this team, a number of the guys making noise and juniors or younger, so Quinnipiac may still be a year off from a real comeback, but they do seem to be on the right track. That first game with Brown will tell us a whole lot more as to whether or not the Bobcats are still a year away.

Click HERE to see Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Preview posts for Air Force, Albany, Army, Bellarmine, Binghamton, Brown, Bryant, Bucknell, Canisius, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denver, Detroit, Drexel, Duke, Fairfield, Hartford, Harvard, High Point, Hobart, Hofstra, Holy Cross, Jacksonville, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola, Manhattan, Marist, Marquette, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mercer, Michigan, Mount St. Mary’s, Navy, UNC, Notre Dame, Ohio State, UPenn, Penn State, Princeton, and Providence!