The UConn women’s lacrosse season came to an end as they fell 16-10 to No. 2 Villanova in the Big East semifinal on Thursday, May 1 in Philadelphia, Pa. This was the first time that the two faced each other in the tournament. The Huskies ended the season with an 11-6 overall record.
The Huskies started in the backfoot, with Villanova opening the score one minute into the first period with a goal by red shirt sophomore Elena Torres. The Wildcats kept this momentum going, scoring a second consecutive goal this time by sophomore Jullian Vaught, her 22nd goal of the season.
Despite being down by two, Connecticut continued to fight on, taking advantage of a foul to bring themselves back up. Redshirt sophomore Ava Plata scored her 19th goal of the season, closing the score to just a one goal differential. Continuous struggles with fouls from Villanova allowed the Huskies to stay in the game early on.
Whereas the Wildcats struggled with fouls, the Huskies’ Achilles’ heel was turnovers. UConn accumulated a total of five turnovers in the first period alone, giving Villanova ample opportunity to grow their lead. Despite that, Connecticut was still able to keep themselves in the running after scoring two more goals by redshirt junior Rayea Davis and junior midfielder Grace Winker; this brough the scoreboard to 4-3 at the end of the first period.
Villanova kept their momentum going in the second period and once again scored a goal within the first minute of the period—this time by freshman Leslie Iorio. They continued to extend their lead as the Huskies struggled with fouls.
However, freshman Meghan O’Brien kept UConn in the game scoring two consecutive goals in the tail end of the second period. The second period ended at 7-5 Villanova.
Villanova came into the third period strong, immediately taking the ball in the initial moments and once again scoring a goal within a minute of play time. They continued to push on, taking advantage of turnovers by the Huskies and, with 10 minutes to go in the period, Vaught scored her third goal of the game.
As the match went on, frustrations from the Huskies grew and they totaled two fouls and two turnovers in just under three minutes. Giving the Wildcats the opportunity to extend their lead further was Torres, scoring her second goal of the match.
Though all hope seemed lost for the Huskies, they took advantage of a ground ball picked up by graduate student Jojo Gum. Freshman Anna Magennis scored a goal off of this, bringing the score to 6-10.
Despite UConn taking control of the ball early in the final period of the game, the continuous turnovers proved to once again be an issue. As Villanova capitalizes on a groundball to score their thirteenth goal of the match. For the rest of the match, it was a game of fouls, with over four fouls recorded and each program taking advantage to score goals, bringing the score to 7-15.
Despite being down by eight, the Huskies continued to fight. They scored three consecutive goals within three minutes in the final moment of the match. Two from graduate student Eliza Bowman and one from sophomore Emma Dacey.
However, the Huskies still fell short, losing the match 16-10 to Villanova.