Two Arenas, Two Comebacks, and One Unforgettable Road Trip
Updated: Aug 31
Some of my favorite experiences in sports photography have started with a map.
There is something about seeing a school on a schedule that I have never visited before and immediately wondering what it will be like to photograph there. Every campus has its own atmosphere, every arena presents a different challenge, and every road trip adds another place and another experience to the story I have been building through sports photography. In November 2025, Quinnipiac Women's Volleyball gave me the opportunity to turn one weekend into exactly that kind of experience: two matches, two MAAC opponents I had never visited before, and a trip that would take me through Niagara and Buffalo before sending me home with two very different comeback victories to remember.
The weekend began at Niagara.
Walking into the Gallagher Center represented another new venue and another MAAC campus I could add to my journey. By this point, I had spent years photographing Quinnipiac athletics and traveling throughout the conference, but there was still something exciting about arriving somewhere completely unfamiliar. You have to quickly learn where you can work, which backgrounds you like, how the lighting behaves, and where the best angles might develop once play begins. It makes you approach a sport you know well with fresh eyes.
Friday night's match gave me plenty of time to figure it out.
Quinnipiac and Niagara battled through an incredibly tight opening set. The Bobcats held a 15-13 advantage at the first media timeout, but Niagara refused to let them create separation. Eventually the Purple Eagles battled back to take the set 28-26. It would have been easy for that narrow loss to affect the rest of the night, particularly on the road, but instead it became the beginning of Quinnipiac's response.
The Bobcats took the second set 25-22 before controlling the third, 25-15. By the fourth, Quinnipiac had transformed an opening-set loss into an opportunity to finish the match. Niagara continued fighting, but the Bobcats closed out another 25-22 set to earn a 3-1 victory and extend their winning streak to 12 matches.
The performance was spread throughout the lineup. Ginevra Giovagnoni led Quinnipiac with 17 kills, Elena Giacomini added 15, and Yagmur Gunes recorded 13 kills and 12 digs while Damla Gunes distributed 43 assists. It was the kind of balanced performance that had helped Quinnipiac put together its winning streak in the first place. One set had gone against them, but the match never did.
With one new MAAC venue checked off, the next day brought another.
But between Niagara and Buffalo, there was somewhere else I had to go.
I had never seen Niagara Falls before. Sports photography has taken me to places I probably never would have experienced otherwise, and I've learned that when these trips provide an opportunity to see something beyond the arena, it's worth taking it. For once, the camera wasn't pointed toward a volleyball court. I had the chance to visit one of the most recognizable natural landmarks in the world simply because the schedule had brought me to Western New York.
That's part of what I've grown to appreciate about traveling for sports. The games provide the reason to go, but they aren't always the only memories you bring home. Years later, I may remember a score or a photograph from a match, but I'll also remember that this was the weekend I saw Niagara Falls for the first time.
Then it was back to volleyball.
Saturday brought me to Buffalo and the Koessler Athletic Center at Canisius, giving me my second new MAAC campus in as many days. If Friday had been about Quinnipiac recovering from one difficult set, Saturday demanded considerably more.
Canisius took the opening set 25-23 and followed it with a 25-19 victory in the second. Quinnipiac was suddenly down two sets on the road, and the 12-match winning streak that had survived Niagara the night before was in serious danger.
From behind the camera, those situations are fascinating to watch.
There is no single photograph that explains how a team responds to being down 2-0. Instead, you begin seeing the story develop frame by frame. A celebration becomes a little louder. Teammates come together after a point. The energy on the court starts changing. Momentum in volleyball can feel almost visible, and when it turns, the challenge as a photographer is recognizing it quickly enough to document the transformation.
Quinnipiac's transformation began in the third.
The Bobcats jumped ahead early and refused to allow Canisius back into the set, winning 25-17. The deficit was still there, but suddenly the match felt different. Quinnipiac carried that momentum into the fourth, building another advantage and eventually forcing a deciding fifth set with a 25-20 victory.
Two sets down had become 2-2.
Then came the fifth.
Canisius took a 7-6 advantage, putting Quinnipiac in another position where the margin for error had almost disappeared. After a timeout, the Bobcats responded with the most important stretch of the weekend, going on a 7-5 run to take a 13-12 lead. Canisius answered once more to make it 14-13, but Vittoria Tonelli finished the comeback with the match-winning kill.
Quinnipiac 3. Canisius 2.
A night after extending the winning streak to 12, the Bobcats had pushed it to 13 consecutive victories and finished the regular season 19-1 overall and 16-2 in MAAC play. Those two conference losses were the fewest Quinnipiac had ever recorded in a single conference schedule, and the weekend secured the No. 2 seed for the MAAC Championship.
Elena Giacomini delivered 24 kills and 12 digs in the finale, while Leilani-kai Giusta added 18 kills and 16 digs. Damla Gunes recorded 46 assists and 17 digs, and Carola Negron Diaz led Quinnipiac with 19 digs. But what I remember most wasn't any individual number. It was watching a team that had already won 12 straight matches find itself two sets from ending that streak and refuse to let it happen.
That's what tied the two matches together for me.
Friday required a response after losing the opening set. Saturday required an even bigger one after losing the opening two. In two unfamiliar arenas, Quinnipiac repeatedly demonstrated the same ability to adjust, respond, and keep moving forward.
In a way, that's also what makes road trips so rewarding as a photographer.
You leave what is familiar behind. You walk into buildings you've never seen, work from positions you've never used, and have no idea exactly what photographs you'll come home with. You learn as you go. Then you pack everything up, get back in the car, and do it again somewhere else.
By the time I left Western New York, I had photographed two more MAAC programs on their home courts. I had watched Quinnipiac extend a winning streak from 11 matches to 13. I had experienced a five-set comeback that began with the Bobcats facing a 2-0 deficit.
And somewhere between those two matches, I stood at Niagara Falls for the first time.
That's why some trips become more than assignments.
The photographs preserve what happened inside the arenas. The miles between them preserve everything else.
CHECK OUT THE FULL GAME ALBUMS FROM THE WEEKEND BELOW THIS POST
