UConn Sports Update, October 21st

[Gregory Koch]

Let's take a look ahead to the weekend. The football team is off, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything going on. Original post here


Women's Ice Hockey: The Huskies open up their Hockey East schedule at home tonight as they face the Maine Black Bears. The Huskies are 0-4-2 while the Black Bears are 4-2-0 so this should be a very tough matchup. Face-off is at 7:00 PM on WHUS and Huskies All-Access. The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 2:00 PM, also on All-Access.

Women's Volleyball: Fresh of their first conference win of the season, the Huskies will go on the road tonight and Sunday. Tonight at 7:00, they travel to Villanova, where they face the 13-8 (5-2 Big East) Wildcats. Video is available on 'Nova's website. Then, on Sunday afternoon, they'll be in Georgetown for a 2:00 PM contest. The Hoyas are 2-5 in Big East and 10-10 overall. Video for that is on the Georgetown website.

Men's Soccer: It's Senior Night at Morrone Stadium tomorrow evening at 7:30. The Huskies will host the Georgetown Hoyas in a crucial Big East Blue Division Showdown. Also, the game has SOLD OUT! Lionel Brown, Nickardo Blake, and Tony Cascio will be honored before the game. UConn suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday night to West Virginia and will look to bounce back. Currently, the Huskies are two points back of Marquette at the top of the Big East Blue Division, and one point ahead of the Hoyas and Mountaineers. This will be a critical stretch run, ending with the game vs. Marquette on Wednesday night (the Huskies wrap-up their season on Saturday the 29th at Seton Hall, but the Pirates are in last place in the Blue Division and have not won a conference game yet, so that should be an easy win). In any case, tomorrow's game will be on WHUS as well as on All-Access.

Women's Soccer: The Huskies will wrap up their season on Saturday as they head to Providence for a 1:00 PM contest on WHUS. Those in Rhode Island can watch this game on Cox Sports, but everyone else will have to listen to audio or use GameTracker. With a win or tie, the Huskies will clinch a spot in the Big East Tournament, and will play in an Opening Round match on Thursday afternoon. If they win today, that match will definitely be at home. With a tie, St. John's can overtake them on the tiebreak if they beat Syracuse, and the Huskies will go on the road. Should the Huskies lose, they would still make the Tournament if St. John's doesn't beat the Orange, but once again, that would be a road game. The Red Storm play at 7:00 PM tonight against Syracuse. You can watch that game on the Red Storm website. This means that come tomorrow, we will know exactly what we need to do to get a home game in the Tournament, and to get a game at all.

Men's Ice Hockey: The Men's Ice Hockey team heads to Merrimack tomorrow at 7:00 PM. I have yet to find information on coverage of that game, so check back when it ends.

Field Hockey: The field hockey team hosts Syracuse Sunday at noon in a huge Big East contest. The winner, of course, will clinch the Big East regular season title, so this is likely a preview of the Championship Game, which will be in Syracuse on November 6th. But for all we said about avoiding Louisville, it may not even apply or matter. The Cardinals have lost five of six and are in fourth place in the conference, tied with Rutgers for the last Tournament spot. The Cards do own the tiebreak, however and their remaining opponent is Providence while the Scarlet Knights have to host us a week from today. We will wrap up the regular season a week from Sunday at Princeton, before heading up to the Big East Championship in Syracuse Friday-Sunday.

Women's Basketball: For the first time since 2005, the Huskies are not pre-season favorites to win the Big East. Notre Dame edged the Huskies in the poll by a mere three points, 219-216, with 9-7 on first place votes. The Huskies' first game is November 13th vs. Holy Cross.

 

[EricLA]

thanks for the round up. was bummed the men's soccer team lost but hopefully they can bounce back. glad to see the game is already sold out!

 

[DieHardHusky]

Women's Hockey lost today 10/21 4-3 to the Maine Black Bears. The starting goalie was Garcia who allowed 3 goals in the first on 11 shots I believe, and was then replaced by sophomore Nicole Paniccia who came through clutch for the Huskies! The only goal she allowed was on a breakaway; she finished with quite a few saves, 21 in all, including a phenomenal diving stop, in the air, across the crease to keep the game within distance. Kelly Horan, Caitlin Ewes, and one other scored for the Huskies. (Can't remember the name because of the excitement at Frietas as the Huskies attempted their comeback)(Edit:Rachel Farrel). With around 1:30 remaining in the 3rd, the Huskies pulled Pannicia to get another attacker as they were conducting a heavy assault on the Black Bears. However, with around 1:07 remaining, the Huskies got called for too many on the ice and Ali Vakos #7 had to head to the box, ridding UConn's chance of a tying it up, as the face-off was brought back to the Huskies end, and they couldn't get anything going after that.

UConn was 2/6 on the Powerplay

Good to see some of the Men's Soccer team in attendance including Diop, and Diouf, along with a few others, and what appeared to be 2 recruits.

 

[Gregory Koch]

And the update for the 22nd: original post here

Women's Ice Hockey: A Huskies' comeback fell just short in their Hockey East opener against Maine, falling to 0-5-2. The Huskies lost 4-3. The Black Bears led 3-1 after the first period and added an additional goal in the second to go up 4-1. Rachel Ferrel and Caitlin Hewes cut the deficit to 4-3, but it wasn't enough as the Black Bears moved on to victory in this contest. The two teams will meet again today at 2:00 PM. You can see that game on All-Access.


Women's Volleyball: The Huskies fell to Villanova on Friday night, 3-1. The two teams split the first two sets, with the Wildcats winning 25-18 in number 1 and the Huskies taking the second, 25-22. But the Wildcats would win the next two easily and take the contest. Mattison Quayle recorded 10 kills and 16 digs. This is her third straight double-double. And she still has one year left after this, as she is only a junior. She could be very impressive if we could get some other players. The rest of our team has struggled, but Quayle has been one of the few bright spots. Lets hope she can keep it up through next season when she graduates.



Men's Soccer: As I mentioned yesterday, tonight at 7:30PM is SENIOR NIGHT!!!! The game is sold out already. The Huskies will face Georgetown in a crucial Blue Division showdown. Providence beat West Virginia last night, 2-1, which moved them (for now) into a tie with us for second place in the Division with 13 points. Marquette has 15 and will head to Seton Hall today at 1:00. Georgetown and West Virginia are right behind with 12 points. Of course, the Friars and Mountaineers have played one more game than everybody else. So this will be a very exciting stretch run. The Huskies will host Marquette Wednesday at 7:00 before heading off to Seton Hall to wrap up the season.

Women's Soccer: Last night, St. John's defeated Syracuse 2-0. So, now they have 15 points to our 14 and Providence's 13. And the Huskies will face the Friars today in Rhode Island. With a win, the Huskies would host Rutgers from the National Division in the first round, and if they win, would face either Louisville or Georgetown (depending on if the Cards can beat Cincinnati today) in the Quarterfinals. With a tie, the Huskies get a #5 seed upon tying with St. John's and losing the tiebreak. In this case, they would face West Virginia again if they win. A loss to the Friars sends the Friars and Red Storm through instead of the Huskies. Opening round games would be on Thursday afternoon/evening sometime.


Field Hockey: Tomorrow is the big showdown - Huskies and Orange for the Big East marbles. At least, the regular season marbles. The winner will win the regular season crown and likely face Louisville in the first round. The Cardinals hammered Providence 6-0 yesterday, but have struggled mightily recently. They'll be looking to get revenge, but it probably won't happen. But I'll be writing more on this tomorrow.

PS: Thanks Diehard husky.

 

[Gregory Koch]

Update 3:17 PM: The Huskies lost to Providence 2-1, thanks to two goals in the last nine minutes. The Huskies led 1-0, but Laura Diclemente scored in the 81st and 89th minute to give the Friars the win. The Huskies are now eliminated from the playoffs. Also, the women's hockey team looks to be on the way to their first win of the season, leading 3-0 after two periods. Sophomore Nicole Paniccia got the start after relieving Alexandra Garcia last night for the last 42 minutes. Don't be surprised if she's the full-time starter soon.

Update 3:57 PM: Huskies defeat Black Bears 3-0 is the final. Paniccia gets the shutout. Huskies get their first win of the year. All is well. UConn is 1-5-2 on the year and will head up to Syracuse for two games. Game 1 is Friday the 28th at 7:00, and Game 2 is Saturday the 29th at 4:00.

 

[DieHardHusky]

Update 3:17 PM: The Huskies lost to Providence 2-1, thanks to two goals in the last nine minutes. The Huskies led 1-0, but Laura Diclemente scored in the 81st and 89th minute to give the Friars the win. The Huskies are now eliminated from the playoffs. Also, the women's hockey team looks to be on the way to their first win of the season, leading 3-0 after two periods. Sophomore Nicole Paniccia got the start after relieving Alexandra Garcia last night for the last 42 minutes. Don't be surprised if she's the full-time starter soon.

Update 3:57 PM: Huskies defeat Black Bears 3-0 is the final. Paniccia gets the shutout. Huskies get their first win of the year. All is well. UConn is 1-5-2 on the year and will head up to Syracuse for two games. Game 1 is Friday the 28th at 7:00, and Game 2 is Saturday the 29th at 4:00.

Solid win the Huskies on the ice. Paniccia finished with 32 saves, one on a breakaway. She looked solid throughout the entire contest. One thing of note that I have not seen until today was that UConn's defenders definitely stepped up today, getting in the way of many shots throughout the entire contest. Evelyn and Farrel (edit Brauer) both scored for the Huskies along with one other (edit: Taylor Gross. It'd certainly be good to get her on a hot streak and pick up where she left off last year) Like Greg aforementioned, I wouldn't be shocked to see her in-between the pipes from now on.

 

[Gregory Koch]

Update 9:53 PM: 0-0 after one OT period at Morrone for the Huskies vs. Hoyas. Getting ready to start the second and final one. A goal ends it. If nobody scores, it's a scoreless draw.

Update 10:05 PM: And 0-0 is your final. Georgetown almost scored a last-second goal (literally!) but it sailed over the bar. Full write-up tomorow.

 

[EricLA]

bummer for the soccer team. such a great start - are the wheels falling off a bit? or are we really not a top 5 team?

 

[zls44]

bummer for the soccer team. such a great start - are the wheels falling off a bit? or are we really not a top 5 team?

They do this every year. The goals dry up when the leaves change.

fcmonk has a tremendous rant on TheUConnBlog explaining it in more vivid detail.

 

[UConn990411]

bummer for the soccer team. such a great start - are the wheels falling off a bit? or are we really not a top 5 team?

They're definitely a top 5 team. Maybe even a top 1 team.

The team's in a bit of a slump right now, especially on offense. This is something that (as zls pointed out) always seems to happen down the stretch of the season, so it's definitely a concern. That said, though, this is the best team UConn's had by a lot since 2007, so we'll see how they respond to the first bit of adversity they've faced this season.