The UConn club lacrosse team, following their losses down south, shifted their focus towards the Liberty Flames, who are a powerhouse in D1 MCLA. Led by Caleb Hammet, a former D1 transfer from UMass who goes by the “Drip King,” the Huskies had a tough task slowing this roster down. Their matchup against Liberty would be a home game for the Huskies, though it would be 45 minutes down the road in Madison, Connecticut. This battle would be a true test for the Huskies due to the age of the Liberty roster compared to theirs.
In their matchup against Liberty, the Huskies played excellent defense in the first quarter, as goalie Harrison Slade only allowed two goals. The offense also got things going early, netting one score of their own, making the score 2-1 going into the second. During the second, the Flames gained momentum as their offense duplicated its points from the first half. The Flames also held UConn scoreless in the second quarter, which stalled the momentum that UConn had built in the first. In the third, the Flames went on the attack again as they were able to net home six goals to break this game wide open. UConn tacked on one in the quarter to make the score 10-2. In the fourth, it was more of the same for both sides as the Huskies’ offense could do little against the stout Liberty defense. The Flames netted home two goals in the quarter while UConn responded with one, marking the end of the game. Liberty took this one 12-3 as they cruised to a dominating road win.
The Flames were led by Keaton Mohs and Braden Landry, as both had three goals for the team along with an assist as they both totaled four points on the day. Junior Luke Branham netted home two goals while providing three assists, making him the leading points-getter in the game. In net, sophomore Ian Carvajal was solid as he had 10 saves on seven shots. For the Huskies, Jake Saldutti had all three goals as he was their only offense in this one, scoring two out of the three unassisted. Slade struggled in net for this one, although he did a good job given the task at hand. He had 24 saves on 36 shots in the game, marking just around a 67% save percentage for the day. Through the shot numbers for both teams, you can see that Liberty is much more represented as they had more looks on the day as opposed to the Huskies.
The Huskies will have to wait a while until their next game as they will hop into division play at Buffalo, who is currently 0-5 on the year. Sophomore Jayden Ginsburg said this following the Huskies’ loss versus Liberty. “Playing three teams of that caliber in a five-day stretch is tough for any team, we aren’t discouraged at all. The team’s mentality going into conference play is to take these next two weeks of practice very seriously and just put our heads down and grind. We know the potential this team has is very high, and we can really make some noise in the CLC in these upcoming games.”
Buffalo will be a must win for the Huskies. The program hopes to gain some much-needed momentum as they look to dominate conference play.