Women's soccer going for AAC regular season championship

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UConn women’s soccer plays its last game of the regular season at East Carolina on Sunday. If the Huskies win this game, they will be the AAC regular season champions. This season the regular season champion gets a bonus in that they also get to host the entire post season AAC tournament. This would be great news for UConn. The Huskies definitely play better at home where they tend to score more goals than they do on the road in the AAC, where they have survived to win (or in one case tie) some tight games where they did not necessarily have the better of the overall play in the field. Anyway, if UConn beats East Carolina and goes on to win the AAC tourney, I would expect that the Huskies would host the first round of the NCAA tourney.

The big news this season for UConn women’s soccer is that the domination of the Husky offense by the goal scoring talents of seniors Rachel Hill (13 goals, 4 assists) and Stephanie Ribeiro (17 goals, 11 assists). It has pretty much been a typical year for Hill, who has been a 10+ goal scorer every year since she arrived at UConn. Last year Hill was named to the NSCAA All American First Team. The arrival of Hill to UConn four years ago gave UConn the consistent goal scorer that the team had been lacking since Kristen Graczyk and Jessica Gertsen last played for the Huskies in 2004. As for Ribeiro, last season she had a very nice season with 7 goals and 8 assists and was named to the NSCAA All American Third Team. This season, Ribeiro’s offensive production has simply exploded into having a simply remarkable season. Once again, you have to go back to at least the days of Graczyk and Gjertsen for when UConn last had such a dynamic goal scoring duo. The offensive fly in the ointment for this season is that no other player on the team has more than 1 goal.

 

[huskymedic]

If the Huskies win this game, they will be the AAC regular season champions. This season the regular season champion gets a bonus in that they also get to host the entire post season AAC tournament. .

Double bonus... weather!

 

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UConn women's soccer has a habit of playing nail biter games on the road, and that was the case with their game at East Carolina. Still, the Huskies overcame an early East Carolina lead to win 2-1, and are the AAC regular season champions. As is often the case this season, UConn seemed to have trouble defending against corner kicks, but it sounded like senior goalkeeper Emily Armstrong bailed the Huskies out time and time again. Two goals by Stephanie Ribeiro, the second one late in the 2nd half to secure the win. Ribeiro now has 19 goals on the season. UConn now will host the AAC women's soccer tournament championship, and the Huskies will next play in the semi finals on Friday.

 

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According to the AAC website, UConn will play the winner of the game between South Florida and Cincinnati. The game is scheduled for 7pm on Friday night. Considering UConn football and men's ice hockey are also playing at that time, I was kind of hoping that the AAC would rearrange the schedule and have UConn play in the first semi final at 4:30.

American Athletic Conference - 2016 Women's Soccer Championship Central

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

No Huskies on second team:

 

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In addition to the All-Conference selections named above, members of the UConn women's soccer team received several other AAC regular season awards:

Stephanie Ribeiro – Offensive Player of the Year
Emily Armstrong – Goalkeeper of the Year
Rachel Hill – Co-Midfielder of the Year
Toriana Patterson – Co-Defender of the Year
Len Tsantiris – Coach of the Year

Huskies Bring Home Five Major Conference Awards

 

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Last night SMU and USF both advanced by penalty kicks to the semi finals. UConn will play USF Friday night at about 7pm, while SMU will play Memphis starting at 4:30.

American Athletic Conference - 2016 Women's Soccer Championship Central

 

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If it's not Stephanie Ribeiro, it's Rachel Hill. A late first half goal by Hill gives UConn a 1-0 lead over USF at the half.

 

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And early in the second half, it's Ribeiro's turn with her 20th goal of the season, putting UConn up 2-0. Last UConn player to score 20 goals was Kristen Graczyk in 2003.

 

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Late in the second half, UConn wing defender Kristen Vinciguerra, who made the AAC All Freshman team, gets a red card that is questionable to the WHUS announcers. So UConn is down to 10 players due to the ejection of Vinciguerra, plus she will be suspended for the finals against SMU assuming UConn holds its 2-0 lead. That's a notable loss.

 

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UConn wins 2-0. They play SMU on Sunday. It was a 0-0 tie when the two teams played at SMU earlier in the season. From what I recall, SMU had the better of the play in that matchup.

 

[ct06111]

2pm on ESPNU

 

[ct06111]

Now on ESPNews

 

[UConnDan97]

What a nice early ball into Hill to beat the offside trap! Hill just being Hill.

UCONN 1 - SMU 0 in the first half...

 

[ScottBonz]

SMU has been the clear better team in the 2nd half. Uconn is just whiffing on tackles booting the ball upfield. Ribiero is the only one who is playing any balls with real intent.

 

[ct06111]

 

[UConnDan97]

UCONN (def.) - Champions in all that they do...

 

[dbmill]

Excellent win for women's soccer today, and it is really nice to see UConn win two conference championships today. I went to the game today despite my misgivings about the weather. UConn certainly had the better of the play the first half, and that breakaway goal by Rachel Hill was a beautiful play. Second half, SMU dominated possession of the ball as UConn with the lead was not too interested in taking chances when it came to trying to generate offense. Despite this, SMU did not have all that many quality chances. The Husky defense was very good at keeping a potent Mustang offense and the ball outside the box and away from dangerous situations. In past games this season, UConn has relied on Emily Armstrong's acrobatic goalkeeping to keep opposing offenses at bay, but I did not feel that was the case in this particular game. The defense in front of Armstrong did the job they needed to do. Overall, from the games I have seen in person and from the games I have listened to, I thought it was the best defensive effort against a quality offensive team that UConn has had all season.