After five days of rest and with only one game to focus on during the weekend, the UConn field hockey team easily defeated Big East foe Georgetown 3-0 on Friday afternoon. The Huskies traveled down to Washington, D.C. during the weekdays and made quick work of the Hoyas, pushing their season record up to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in conference.
Thanks to their tendency for extreme offensive aggression, the Huskies got off to a quick start with a goal from Madi Herb in the fifth minute. From there, they never looked back; at the 7:53 mark, Erica Solomen put in another score, making it 2-0, and then, not 15 minutes later, Herb once again scored with an incredible shot, making it 3-0. And that’s where the score would stay for the rest of regulation. When comparing the stats between the two teams, it’s easy to see why UConn took the advantage so early and never gave it up: the team kept control of the ball and continually took shots, bombarding the Hoya goalkeeper, Ciara Weets. That’s not to say that she didn’t make an effort; she had quite the day, still managing to rack up 11 saves, but with how much she was seeing the ball, it was inevitable that some shots were going to get by her. The sheer volume in attempts speaks more to Georgetown’s defense, which showed that it really couldn’t keep up with the UConn attack. The discrepancy between the two teams is pretty clear, as the Huskies got 21 shots off, 14 of which were on goal, while the Hoyas could only muster four shots, with three of them being somewhere in the vicinity of the net. What made matters worse was the corner disadvantage, where the Connecticut team racked up 11 while Georgetown couldn’t even manage one. Suffice to say, UConn came, saw and conquered, without a sweat.
Such a convincing victory puts the Huskies on an interesting track going forward: they took a key win in their race to get the number one seed in the Big East with Liberty and Old Dominion, and with a single match left on their conference slate, they’ll have to win that to have any chance at potentially taking the top spot. They also have to think about next Sunday’s matchup against No. 2 Maryland, and how they’ll decide to approach it. For the sake of the all-important NFHCA rankings, a win would be necessary in giving them a final push into the top ten. The Terrapins are a scary team, but the Huskies certainly have the capability to overcome that kind of obstacle being thrown in their way. A couple days after their last match of the regular season, once the calendar strikes November, it’ll officially be time for tourney season, where these UConn Huskies hope to prove that they’re the wheat separated from the rest of the Big East’s chaff.
