Last Sunday, the Ohio State field hockey team won its Big Ten opener at home against Indiana. A last-minute goal propelled the Buckeyes to a thrilling 3-2 victory.
This season, the team is led by an experienced defense, allowing just 1.3 goals per game. Senior goalkeeper Lindsay Quintiliani, who was elected team captain, anchors the defense.
Quintiliani is a four-year starter in the program and owner of 13 career shutouts, including three in the last four games.
Quintiliani began playing field hockey after being encouraged by her friends in 7th grade. Within her first month of playing she settled on being goalie.
Ten years later, she’s still in the net and is just two victories short of becoming the all-time leader in OSU history.
“I obviously want to win more than two more games this season,” Quintiliani said. “I don’t really like to think about [the record]. It’s not something I want to think about during a game.”
What Quintiliani is thinking about this season is winning another Big Ten title. That goal is shared by the entire team and has been since the end of last season, when the Buckeyes suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to Iowa, Quintiliani said.
The Bucks can move a step closer to winning the conference this Friday when they play a pivotal game against Penn State in Happy Valley, Pa. A victory would be a big step toward winning the Big Ten and would extend the Buckeyes’ current six-game win streak.
The last time the field hockey team won the Big Ten was in 2006, when Quintiliani was a true freshman.
She lists winning the conference as the most exciting moment in her career but says because she was just a freshman, she didn’t enjoy being conference champs as much as she should have. That drives her even more to win another Big Ten title, she said.
That season, Quintiliani stepped in and started all 19 games for the Buckeyes and posted five shut outs.
“That year, I drew confidence from my coach and teammates,” she said. She added that she received encouraging e-mail after a tough loss that kept her going.
Quintiliani has since displayed no shortage of confidence in her career at OSU.
With a Big Ten championship already to her credit, along with four career Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors, including two this season, and two major OSU records (shutouts and victories) within reach, Quintiliani is poised to finish her career strong.
When the star goalkeeper isn’t shutting out opponents on the field, she’s racking up awards for her outstanding work in the classroom. She has been selected as an NFHCA National Academic Squad member three times and is a three-time OSU Scholar-Athlete. She’s also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and the recipient of the team’s Harriet Reynolds Scholar-Athlete Award.
Quintiliani is studying speech and hearing at OSU and is currently applying for graduate school to pursue a career in speech pathology.