The Huskies are going to the postseason.
With a trip to the Big East Championship semifinals on the line, the Huskies (7-9, 3-3 Big East) held on against now No. 4 seeded Marquette (9-6, 3-3 Big East) to win 12-10 and clinch the No. 3 seed.
“Obviously, we still have a couple moments in the game where it gets a little iffy, but it was great,” UConn head coach Katie Woods said after the game. “I kind of had a feeling that our best lacrosse was going to be at the end of the season.”
Megan O’Brien scored her fifth hat trick of the season with a career-high five goals on the day.
The sophomore scored the game’s first goal unassisted after coming around from behind the net with 11:59 to play in the first and didn’t let up from there. The attacker scored two more in the first half and a pair in the third quarter.
“I think the neat thing about Meg is she just wants to win, and she wants to do anything that can help the team win,” Woods said. “So, even for us, putting her on the draw circle, she’s been able to be a huge factor in the draws this year for us. She just has a knack for it. [She] sees the opening [and] takes it. You know, sometimes it doesn’t work out, but I think today she saw some different things. She didn’t force things, which I thought was really good.”
O’Brien had two draw controls, while Barlow Clark-Schoeb led the team with seven. The Huskies outworked the Golden Eagles on the circle, securing 15 draws to Villanova’s nine.
That deficit may not have mattered for Marquette, had the Golden Eagles found a way to convert more free position shots. Despite being handed 11 opportunities, seven more than UConn, they only found the back of the net on two. The Huskies went three for four.
One of those two scores came with just 3:21 left to play, as freshman Dani Serrano scored from the left side on a free position shot to make it a two-goal game and put the pressure back on the UConn defense.
The Huskies had previously led by as many as five goals after Lucia Smigiel sent one home on a free position shot of her own with 14:16 on the clock at the start of the fourth quarter. That goal marked Smigiel’s third of the game and the Huskies’ second hat trick in the contest.
With UConn’s lead cut down to two and just over three minutes left on the clock, the Huskies’ defense buckled down. Marquette wouldn’t take another shot, as a Rayea Davis caused turnover and an Abby Beran ground ball cost the Golden Eagles their final chance at a comeback.
Beran finished with two caused turnovers. The second gave her the all-time program record for most caused turnovers with 105.
“There’s a reason why she has all the caused turnovers and has all the ground balls,” Woods said. “She works on that all the time. She just has like a next level commitment to being the best defender that she can be so that we can win.”
Beran stands as the favorite to be named Big East Defensive Player of the Year for a second straight season and almost certainly be a member of the conference first team.
For Marquette, Riley Jenkins led the way with four goals for a hat trick of her own. Hanna Bodner and Eileen Dooley each scored a pair, while Ella Mautz chipped in one of her own.
In addition to the hat tricks from O’Brien and Smigiel, the Huskies also saw goals from Davis and Ava Plata along with two from Hadley Bethke.
After ending their season on a high note, the Huskies will travel to Denver on Thursday to take on No. 2 seed Georgetown in the Big East Championship Semifinals. That contest will take place at 9 p.m. at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. Husky fans can tune in live on ESPN+.
Though Georgetown previously defeated UConn handedly back in March by a final of 18-7, the Huskies finished out the season with three straight wins in Big East play.
“We have a lot of young guys on the field that didn’t have playing experience, even some seniors that just didn’t have as much playing experience as we wanted,” Woods said when talking about the start of the season. “ I knew we would be playing our best lacrosse towards the end. I knew it was going to be this type of situation. I’m just excited that we were able to put it together and finish it.”