Coming off a heartbreaking loss against Cornell, the UConn women’s lacrosse team is set to return to action just four days later. They return home for their sixth such contest of the season, a venue where they’re much more comfortable. The Huskies are 4-1 at Morrone Stadium, a slate that includes a win over No. 15 Yale. When they’re not playing in Storrs, Connecticut, they’re 0-2.
This time they’ll face the UAlbany Great Danes: a team they’ve never lost to. UConn is 4-0 against them all time, including a commanding 16-11 win in Albany, New York exactly a year earlier. The Great Danes have been good, but not great this year, fighting an intense schedule that pitted them against three ranked teams, the same number Connecticut has faced.
They lost by seven at No. 20 Johns Hopkins in the first such match, before heading out to Syracuse, the current No. 1 team in the nation. They caught a 22-5 shellacking, down 19-2 after three frames. More recently, Albany lost a week and a half ago at Stanford by one after being up midway through the fourth. In their other games, the Great Danes are 4-1. They have a pair of common opponents with the Huskies, with both teams losing to Cornell by three while also edging out Fairfield.
Leading the high-scoring UAlbany charge is Katie Pascale, who has been a force this year. She has 23 goals and 16 assists, numbers that are both top-two on the team. The junior had a remarkable two-game stretch against Cornell, notching 10 goals and eight helpers in the span. More recently, she’s netted eight in the past pair of contests, a testament to her effectiveness throughout the campaign.
The team’s leading scorer is Shonly Wallace, who has somehow been more effective lately. She’s scored a whopping 17 times in the past three games, placing her among the hottest players in the country. This has played a massive role in her 27 season goals, with putting the ball in the net being her sole job. The dynamic duo of Wallace and Pascale will be tough to beat; stopping it is just the key for the Huskies.
Connecticut has been similar to UAlbany in schedule results, although recording one more win against ranked opposition. That one win came at home against No. 15 Yale, a back-and-forth affair that was easily the Huskies’ most encouraging win of the season. They’ve lost their other two ranked games, each by four. Similar to the Great Danes, they’ve looked convincing in other games, establishing themselves as a fringe-top 25 squad.
For UConn, the offense lives and dies through Kate Shaffer, who has had to compensate for Sydney Watson’s absence. The senior leads the team in scoring and assisting with 22 and 11 respectively on the year. Grace Coon and Lia LaPrise each have 19 goals, both serving as significant contributors to the attack. All three will be valuable as UConn faces a roughly even matchup.
The opening draw for the game will be at 2 p.m. and it can be watched on FloSports.
