Women's college hockey series of the week: No. 9 Quinnipiac vs. No. 6 Cornell

It’s time for the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals as the Big Red host the Bobcats in a best-of-three series this weekend.

Cornell is currently 22-6-1 while Quinnipiac is 25-9-1. Cornell captured its 16th Ivy League Title in their last game as they had a 2-1 win over Yale. In the ECAC Hockey Opening Round, the Bobcats blew past Harvard in a 9-0 victory.

Between these two teams, Big Red has the overall record, 19-14-7. In their last 10 faceoffs, they have split 5-5 but when they played in January, Cornell came out victorious with a 4-3 win after losing five in a row to the Bobcats.

The star players in red are Izzy Daniel, Rory Guilday and Lily Delianedis. Daniel has been on fire this season as she currently has 53 points in 29 games. Her points are made up of 20 goals and 33 assists, leading the team in both of those categories. Daniel has a +/- of +25 along with 29 blocks.

Guilday has been a powerhouse on the defensive side, leading the team in blocks with 46. She has 14 points with four goals, one of them being from the powerplay. Delianedis is the current leader of powerplay goals as she has four. She also has four game-winning goals and 31 points on the season.

Kate Reilly, Kendall Cooper and Maya Labad are the players to watch for the Bobcats. Reilly leads the team in points as she has 39 with 29 assists and 10 goals. She also has a +/- of +23 and four powerplay goals.

Cooper has been a very offensive defenseman this season as she has 51 blocks on the back end but then also 33 points. She has two game-winning goals and two powerplay goals as well. Labad has been a star on the powerplay as she leads the team with six powerplay goals. She has 27 points with a +/- +16.

The goaltending matchup will be freshman Annelies Bergmann for Cornell against Logan Angers, the graduate student for Quinnipiac. Bergmann has had 41 goals against her and she has a save percentage of .927 with three shutouts.

Angers has played a few more games than Bergmann and has 61 goals against her. She has a save percentage of .937 with 6 shutouts.

All of this success is only possible with coaches so let's take a look at each team's leader. Doug Derraugh is the head coach of the Big Red and Cassandra Turner coaches the Bobcats.

Derraugh has been the head coach for Cornell since 2005 and he has brought this team to their place among the nation’s elite. Derraugh has a 325-180-49 record in his 17 seasons as coach and he has won many coach of the year awards. He has led this team to four Frozen Four Appearances, four ECAC Hockey Tournament titles, six ECAC Hockey Regular Season Titles and seven Ivy League Championships.

Turner is in her eighth season with the Bobcats and she previously had coaching experience with Canada’s U18 National Women’s Team through the World Championship. In her time at Quinnipiac, she has led the team to their first NCAA Tournament which they now have two appearances. In Turner’s first season as head coach for the Bobcats, she set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year women’s ice hockey coach at any level.

This looks to be an exciting series as both teams want to head on to the semifinals for a chance at the ECAC Hockey Championship.

Kassie Vasellas is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email kmv5506@psu.edu