The runner-up in last year’s MAAC tournament, Tricia Fabbri and Quinnipiac are looking to return to mountaintop for first time since 2019, a conquest that is certainly familiar for longtime Bobcats coach. (Photo by Quinnipiac Athletics)
In 2012, when her Quinnipiac team was suddenly eliminated by Monmouth in the NEC tournament semifinals, Tricia Fabbri had a simple three-word message.
“We’ll be back.”
As it was, the Bobcats terminated their NEC opposition the following year, completing an undefeated conference season — the first of several that would come in Hamden over the next decade — and reaching their first NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.
Quinnipiac is in somewhat of a drought at the moment as it relates to March Madness, as the program has not cut down a net since 2019, but its head coach — now in her 31st season at the helm — carries a similar hunger and determined edge to take down two-time reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Fairfield, which just so happens to be her alma mater, as she did thirteen years ago in what turned out to be the Bobcats’ last season in the NEC.
“I loved all of last year, and how does it impact us now? Well, we’ve got the core back. We’ve got a core, we’ve gone from being young to being older with juniors and seniors, and a lot of players that have seen a lot of time. It’s not a daily reminder, but it’s certainly nice to be able to carry a chip on your shoulder going into this year with the team that I do have.”
Much like that aforementioned 2012-13 team, which brought back all five starters en route to perfection, Quinnipiac retains its trademark depth and experience even in the absence of Gal Raviv, the first freshman player of the year in MAAC history, who transferred to Miami in the offseason. While such a loss would be almost insurmountable for most mid-major programs, having six of the Bobcats’ top eight players return is a security blanket of sorts for Fabbri, who has come to value the familiarity and appreciates the acceleration it has given her and her staff in preparation.
“I think health and depth always have been a difference maker in the season that you would like to have,” she conceded. “I like that we’ve gone from young to old, and what I mean by that is, our pace of what we’re able to do in practice at this point compared to checking what we were doing two years ago at this time and then last year at this time. We’ve added a couple of new pieces that I think people will really enjoy watching them play, so depth is going to be impactful.”
“I think for us, in the absence of Gal, it’s going to be, where can we make up our points defensively? I think that we get a bit more balance offensively. You talk about depth…if we get back to that a little bit more, we’ve got our leading assist players back in Anna Foley and Jackie Grisdale. I think those two players are poised to have player of the year-type seasons for us going forward.”
Foley and Grisdale, plus Karson Martin, Paige Girardi, Ava Sollenne, Bri Bowen, Ella O’Donnell and Maria Kealy, join forces to form perhaps the most battle-hardened and formidable upperclassman stable in the MAAC. The latter two, O’Donnell and Kealy, have furthered the Irish pipeline started by Edel Thornton several years ago, and have only underscored the importance of overseas recruiting in a fluid landscape.
“That’s a great question,” Fabbri said when asked how the international presence in her program has allowed her to keep pace with her competition. “We’ve had a great international pipeline, not only from Ireland, but from Latvia (Paula Strautmane), Angola (Khadijah Tungo) and Israel (Raviv). So we’re comfortable in going overseas to go find those diamonds. Ella and Maria are poised again. Their leadership, their experience and their time being a senior and a junior, who really gets that now? We’re gonna depend on all of that, that experience, the leadership, the depth, the new faces blending with the old, and then really going back to a lot of balance that we’ve had in the past that we’re really going to utilize on the court.”
When Quinnipiac joined the MAAC, it did so at the tail end of the dynasty Brian Giorgis had put together at Marist, leading some to question whether or not the Bobcats would be able to meet the established benchmark for success. Two years later, that standard was smashed when a Jasmine Martin-led team won the MAAC tournament, and further obliterated with a Sweet 16 appearance two years later. Still, the goal remains the same, with the past trophies not going to anyone’s head.
“To compete to win every game,” Fabbri said of the primary objective. “We always schedule our opportunities to have a lot of success, so that it means more when you’re in the championship game in the MAAC, winning the championship game in the MAAC. That’s always been the recruiting and scheduling philosophy. We have these opportunities in front of us, now we have to make the most of them when we’re seeing Boston College, Rutgers, St. John’s.”
At MAAC media day in September, Fabbri was asked about coming so far to come up short. But with a steely facade and a conviction corroborated by having reached the summit several times before, she reiterated getting there was only half the battle. The Bobcats will be back again, only this time, simply occupying the stage is not good enough.
“I think we’ve talked about it,” she said of last season’s conclusion. “We don’t forget about it. It’s great to have that chip on our shoulder, but we’re going to do what it takes for us to have the success we want to have. We can’t skip steps. We got to the game, now we want to get back there and we want to cut the nets down this year.”
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