The UConn women’s field hockey team played two matches against Liberty University this past weekend. In two intense games, the Huskies split the weekend series, winning the first game by a score of 3-2 and losing the second game 4-0. Junior Jessica Dembrowski and redshirt sophomore Claire Jandewerth led the offensive charge, scoring two and one goals respectively in the victory. Additionally, Aiyi Young and Vivienne Tucker made the key assists in this great team win. The Huskies capitalized on attempting eight more shots than the Liberty Flames, two of which were on goal. They also maintained a critical 12-5 lead in penalty corners in Saturday’s victory.
Both teams played a very disciplined game with no fouls on either side. UConn’s ability to create corner opportunities made all the difference in this defensive battle. A huge shoutout also has to go to UConn’s goalkeeper Cheyenne Sprecher who made eight pivotal saves to preserve their narrow one goal advantage.
The second of the two weekend matches told a different story. Going into Sunday’s match, the Liberty Flames were 7-1 and 6-1 within the heated Big East conference. Their sole loss was to our UConn Huskies and it appears that they took that loss to heart as they came back with a vengeance in Sunday’s match. While UConn was able to create more opportunities on goal, the Huskies 14-6 advantage in the shots on goal metric did not matter because four of the Flame’s shots were true. UConn also led statistically on corners but luck did not favor the Huskies on this day. Occasionally, this will happen against a tough opponent but the loss will prove as a great learning opportunity for the Huskies to come back stronger.
UConn now ranks third in the conference, one spot behind Liberty, and will look to improve this record next week. The talent is clearly there and cohesion takes time. Statistically speaking, the Huskies executed very well which is apparent by the scoring opportunities they created on offense and prevented on defense. One unfortunate loss to a fellow contender is no reason to worry.
