photo by Emma Meidinger, grab photographer/The Daily Campus
On Saturday, the UConn women’s lacrosse team evened their record to .500 after trouncing Marquette at home. This isn’t the first time the Huskies have found themselves back at an even record, but what they haven’t done is gotten above that. Their chance to do so comes in their second straight home game on Wednesday against Villanova.
The Wildcats have had a slightly worse season than the Huskies, and common opponents demonstrate that this game is very winnable for Connecticut. After narrowly losing to No. 21 Southern Cal at home, Villanova took care of business against fellow Pennsylvania opponents Bucknell and La Salle.
Afterwards, things got rough. The Wildcats dropped four straight, including two against ranked opposition. Those two losses came by a combined score of 38-17 after they were completely dominated on the road. One of the others in the skid came against Columbia, a team that UConn defeated 17-1. That’s a nice direct comparator.
Villanova strung together a pair of nice wins against Lafayette and Vermont, but then split their first two Big East games, bringing them to a 5-6 record. As for who’s responsible for the Wildcats’ scoring, that would be Sydney Pappas.
The junior attacker from Garden City, New Jersey has been on a tear this year with 37 goals in just 10 games. That total puts her 27th nationally in scoring, but there isn’t much offense coming from anyone else on the team. Pappas has just two assists on the year, but she doesn’t have many great options to pass to. Nobody else on the team has even half of Pappas’ goal total with Mary Moore coming in second at 15. Their lack of a well-rounded attack makes it mission-critical to stop Pappas at every opportunity.
Just as the scoring is concentrated in one player, the passing game is too. Sami Carey, the team’s third leader in goals, has taken over the team’s facilitating duties. The junior has dished out 18 assists, which is double the next best on the team. Just as important as it is to stop Pappas, containing Carey will be a big task for the Huskies. If they can do both of those, then it should be smooth sailing in Storrs.
As for UConn, they’re looking to turn one win into a win streak. The key player in making that happen is Kate Shaffer, who has been very successful at times, but hasn’t shown a ton of consistency. The past few games, she’s bounced back and forth between scoring one goal and five goals, with less production as a facilitator than she’s typically shown. Shaffer will be key down the stretch for the Huskies as she looks to pair with the team’s other emerging star, Rayea Davis.
Davis put together her best career game in her most recent against Marquette. She posted five goals and five assists, accumulating an incredible 10 points. She also did it on just six shots. Connecting on her chances was the biggest area of opportunity going into this season and she’s really improved there.
All said, the biggest focus for the rest of the season is building momentum for the Big East tournament. Beating Denver in the finals would be a trick, but if they can have a great day and are firing on all cylinders, they could be a surprise entry into the NCAA Tournament.
Opening draw for the matchup will be at 1 p.m. at Morrone Stadium and can be viewed on FloSports.