What began as a promising season for UConn ended as one where many were left wondering what could have been. The Huskies will look for a resurgent year as they rejoin the Big East. Photo by Charlotte Lao/The Daily Campus.
Head Coach Ray Reid and his Huskies suffered its most difficult season while in the American Athletic Conference, ending the year with an overall record of 5-12-1 (2-5, The American) and coming in at No. 6 in the conference. While the beginning of the season seemed promising, beating Rider and URI who were in the 2018 NCAA tournament, the remainder was riddled with unfortunate defeats and hard-fought efforts that ultimately led to draws. That isn’t to say Reid’s squad had players who couldn’t get the job done; but one in particular grabbed many fans’ attention early on.
Jordan Hall, a graduating transfer senior from Manchester, England, was the team’s top scorer this season with nine goals and one assist. Hall was a promising goal scorer given his one-year stint at Rutgers, where he scored 14 goals out of the 18 games he played.
Out of the nine games Hall played as a Husky, he managed to score in six of them; his highest-scoring game being against URI with a hat trick. Hall’s season came to an abrupt end when he picked up a leg injury about halfway through the season.
Another senior, Dayonn Harris of Milton, Ontario, led the team in assists this season with nine, while managing to score twice. Joining the team in 2017, Harris has since added immense value to Reid’s squad, like in the 2018 season where he was second top scorer on the team with five goals while obtaining seven assists. Harris was also named in the AAC’s first team all-conference this season.
Senior Dayonn Harris had another solid season, leading the team with nine assists and adding two goals. He was chosen with the 20th overall pick in this year’s MLS Draft. Photo by Charlotte Lao/The Daily Campus.
UConn’s most notable fixture was its senior night against Tulsa for two reasons: it was the last game of the conference and was the Huskies’ last chance to enter the AAC tournament. The Huskies were partially reliant on UCF to beat Cincinnati as such result would give a greater chance to be eligible for the postseason tournament, but the Reid and his players had to depend on themselves if they were to get the result that they wanted. To their liking, they managed to do just that, as UConn went on to win 6-3. While they narrowly secured their spot for the postseason tournament, it came to a quick end as they were defeated by USF 1-0.
While two of Reid’s notable seniors depart from the squad, there is hope for the program to make a comeback. For instance, two freshmen, Ben Awashie and Moussa Wade, were named to the AAC All-Rookie Team while sophomore midfielder Felix Metzler and junior Robin Lapert were named to the second team all-conference.
Coach Reid’s roster will hold a respectable amount of talent for when the soccer season returns, and there’s no doubt he will work his best to re-evaluate what went wrong this season and how the team can come back.
David Sandoval is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at david.sandoval@uconn.edu. He tweets @sandovalduconn.