The UConn Women’s Lacrosse beat Bryant University 15 – 8 Tuesday night in the Sherman Family Sports Complex. The Huskies were able to quickly capitalize on Bryant’s mistakes and effectively generate opportunities; UConn consequently controlled the game. (Photo by Kevin Lindstrom/The Daily Campus)
The UConn women’s lacrosse team played was undoubtedly their best game of the season. When stepping onto the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex, the Bryant University Bulldogs didn’t know what was in store for them. The Huskies record clearly isn’t an accurate representation of the team’s ability and they proved that against the Bulldogs.
Lauren Britton started the game for the Bulldogs with the game’s first goal followed by a period of nearly three useless minutes. Little did the Bulldogs know that the Huskies were going to go on a 5-1 run, holding the Bulldogs scoreless for over eight minutes.
Freshman midfield Lia LaPrise is where the Huskies gained a lot of their momentum. LaPrise obtained two quick assists to get the Huskies going. UConn played tough defense and successfully converted ground balls and steals to points, allowing them to go into halftime up 7-3.
LaPrise, alongside Stephanie Palmucci, had communication with one another like no other on the field. While LaPrise assisted Palmucci in all of her goals scored, Palmucci assisted LaPrise in her first and last goals of the game. LaPrise ended the game with three goals and five assists.
“I think [LaPrise] did well. She’s a freshman, she really smart, she just reads it. She’s going to be great for us. I think tonight was just another, coming off of Saturday and her performance there, it’s another strong performance,” said Katie Woods. “I think she just has to continue to work through some different things and know when to pull off of it a little bit I thought she did well. She puts the ball into space which allows the guys to run onto it and she has great connections with certain people so I think that also helps and they read her very well,”
LaPrise has proven herself to be important to the Huskies success moving forward. She described the game as nerve wracking from a freshman’s standpoint and explained her constant struggling with having confidence. This struggle that she mentioned is surely something that any spectator watching the game would have been able to pick up on.
Despite UConn’s 2-8 record, LaPrise refuses to be counted out. She explained her personal plans moving forward, as well as the teams’ as “taking confidence for myself and for the team and keeping going just getting win after win. We still have some big games coming up, so we’re just going to have to keep and level head and just take it to them.”
Veteran players Olivia Miles, Anna Costello and Sydney Watson opened the second half of the game for the Huskies, each scoring an unassisted goal, before allowing Bryant to score their first goal of the half, which wasn’t obtained for over 15 minutes into the half.
Thursday marks the start of the conference play for the Huskies, so this win against Bryant gives them something to gain momentum from. This win keeps their confidence and hope for the rest of the season to take a turn for the best alive.
Moving forward for conference play, Palmucci said, “definitely keeping the momentum going, fueling off this win and having confidence.”
The Huskies will play their first conference game on Saturday on the road against Cincinnati. This will also be UConn’s first time experiencing conference play as members of The American.
Hanaisha Lewis is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at hanaisha.lewis@uconn.edu
