Ever since falling apart against No. 12 Denver on the road in their Big East opener, the UConn women’s lacrosse team has been on a roll. They’re on a three-game win streak, just in time for a pair of out of conference games on the road.
The first game comes against SUNY Albany. History shows that, with the Huskies boasting an all-time 5-0 record against the Great Danes, they are an opponent who is very beatable. This season has not been kind to UAlbany, as they have just a 4-8 record.
They challenged themselves to kick the season off, which didn’t lead to great results. The Danes hosted No. 14 Johns Hopkins, UConn’s Eliza Bowman’s old school, and lost close. Their trip to No. 2 Boston College went no better, as their score was doubled up. Their next three games were against Fairfield, Brown and JMU, all teams ranked in the top 25. Albany generally looked like they belonged on the same field as those opponents, but they still couldn’t eke out any wins, starting 0-5.
In a frustration-reliever, they dominated Colgate, but then allowed an unbelievable 25 goals in their trip to No. 1 Northwestern. The America East conference is more their speed, as they kicked it off beating Binghamton. However, they took a one-game break to play No. 7 Syracuse and to nobody’s surprise, were romped. The Great Danes have gone 2-1 in their most recent three AE games, which puts them at 3-1 in conference.
Their offense is led by Katie Pascale, a senior who has developed into an all-time great UAlbany player. She recently notched her 3,000th career point and is in the midst of another sensational individual season. The dual threat leads the team in both scoring and facilitating, with 35 goals and 31 assists. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she’s in 11th place in women’s lacrosse this season in points and seventh in points per game. Pascale is the player to watch in this one and is difficult to defend. Especially as the season has gone, she has become unstoppable, with 6 or more points in 4 of her last 5 games.
Pascale’s favorite teammate to set up is Grace McCauley, who is narrowly second on the team with 31 goals. Though the junior doesn’t dish out any assists–she has zero on the season–her scoring abilities more than make up for it. Since going scoreless against Fairfield and Brown in consecutive games, McCauley has enjoyed a month and a half long scoring streak. When trying to decide how to stop the two-headed monster, UConn would likely be wise to let one of the two go crazy, but not both. Albany hasn’t been a terribly difficult team to beat though, so odds are they can figure it out.
For UConn’s offense, they’ve gotten contributions from a bunch of different places. Instead of having one clear leader like in years past, Kate Shaffer, Susan Lafountain and Rayea Davis have all been effective in moments. It’s unclear if that lack of certainty within who the alpha is the reason they’re a bit less successful than they have been in years past.
Their 7-5 record is definitely more visually appealing than the 4-5 one they did out of their loss at Denver, as they are starting to build momentum. They whiffed on all their ranked opportunities–as did Albany–and will need an upset in the Big East tournament if they want a bid to the NCAA tournament. That’ll require A-games from all three of their stars, which we haven’t totally seen yet. Doing so in Albany would be a great time to start, with these games most important in preparing for May.
This game can be viewed on ESPN+, with the opening draw slated for 1 p.m..