The clock ran out and the UConn women’s soccer team, marked by its experience and maturity, could finally cut loose and be kids again.
But just for a few moments.
“Well, we did a lot of screaming,” said Maddie Fried, who scored the first goal in the Huskies’ 2-0 victory over Georgetown in the Big East semifinal on Thursday at Boyds, Md. “A lot of it, a lot of jumping up and down and hugging and pushing. … And then we all just went to bed.”
UConn had a right to celebrate this one. Many of the Huskies had been carrying a loss to Georgetown in the conference semifinals for over a year. Now they knocked off the No.1-seeded Hoyas, who had won this tournament four years in a row, seven of the last eight.
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“We had this championship mindset that, of course, last year we lost to the same team in the semis,” said Lucy Cappadona, who has scored in both of the Huskies’ postseason wins. “We just didn’t want it to be taken from us. This moment was something we knew we could get to. That was the narrative. We need to take care of this game.”
UConn (12-4-4) is a veteran team, with eight seniors and four grad students, and the experience has really shown down the stretch of the season. The Huskies won their last two, against DePaul and Seton Hall, to get into the tournament as the No.5 seed, and then knocked off Creighton on the road and Georgetown; four wins in a row by a combined score of 8-1.
“Our goal all year has been a Big East championship and the NCAA Tournament,” coach Margaret Rodriguez said, “and we knew it came down to our last stretch to push to get some results and put ourselves in this position and we did just that. We’re focused, we’re disciplined, the whole team has bought in. It’s just a good place to be as a coach, to know the whole team is ready and locked into this moment.”
The moment is Sunday at 11 a.m., when UConn will play No.2 Xavier at the Maryland SoccerPlex. With a win, the Huskies would go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 and claim the program’s first Big East championship since 2004.
“Our last two games is when I really felt the experience kick in,” Rodriguez said. “Being in these bigger moments, these must-win games, we’ve already been in his playoff mindset.”
The Huskies have nine players from Connecticut, with several others from New York and around New England. Rodriguez, who has been with the program for 17 years, the last seven as head coach, had a vision to “build a brick wall around the Northeast” and make UConn the destination for the best talent in the region.
“Being home, having that UConn on my chest, it means something more,” said Fried, from Monroe and St. Joseph-Trumbull, who transferred to UConn after three years at Villanova. “It’s personal, it’s what I grew up with. It gives us a lot of heart.”
Cappadona, from Marlborough, Mass., has been at UConn since 2021.
“Everybody is leading in different ways, everybody is getting our underclassmen involved,” she said. “The standard is super high for understanding where we need to be and how we can put ourselves in the best position. So our seniority helps. We hold each other accountable. We understand what it takes to win a championship, and we know how it feels to lose in moments that you don’t want to lose in.”
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Junior Chioma Okafor has 12 goals, seven more than any other Husky, but has drawn more attention from the opposing defenders as the season has gone on and has only one goal in the last seven games. More scoring opportunities have developed for others. Fried scored her fifth goal of the season with a resounding finish in the first half against Georgetown, and Cappadona put it out of reach in the 57th minute with her fourth goal of the season, converting a perfect corner kick from Sophie McCarthy.
“In conference play when teams have a lot of scouts on us, you know the target and the key player to watch is Chioma,” Rodriguez said. “And they can’t afford to sleep on a player like that, so she just garners a ton of attention. So the responsibility I placed on players around her, the responsibility falls on you to step up and be ready when Chioma distracts and makes a run, we can find second and third options.”
Meanwhile, UConn’s cohesive defense held Georgetown to only two shots on goal, as another grad student, keeper Kaitlyn Mahoney, notched her 27th career shutout.
With such a veteran team, Rodriguez was comfortable allowing players the freedom to visit with family and friends after a light practice early Friday. On Saturday, there will be the standard prep, then a team dinner.
“We showed ourselves as what we’ve known we could be all season,” Fried said. “The confidence is there. We know that we could compete with any team in this league, but we proved it to ourselves. It’s just an exciting feeling to finally play the way we know we can, so I think our confidence is through the roof right now.”
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Fabulous starts for UConn freshies
The UConn men’s and women’s basketball unveiled their new teams this week, and two standouts were highly touted freshmen. Liam McNeeley had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the men against Sacred Heart, and Sarah Strong had 17 points, four rebounds and three assists for the women against Boston University.
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“Some players don’t have it in them to be able to (adjust) and they get overwhelmed by the bigness of it,” UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma said. “Players like Liam, players like Sarah, they prove in high school that they’re made for the moments. They show their best stuff when people most expect it of them, that’s what makes them who they are.
“That’s why everyone covets them coming to your school. I don’t think you come into a season thinking ‘This freshman is going to blow everybody away,’ but it has happened, we have had that, so every once in a while you get some real unique guys that come along. From what I’ve heard on the men’s side, Liam is that kind of guy and certainly Sarah is that kind of player.”
Sunday short takes
*UConn’s Andre Jackson broke into the Bucks’ starting lineup Thursday in place of Gary Trent Jr. and had had seven points, four assists, four steals and three rebounds in his 28 minutes. “He brings energy,” Giannis Antetokounmpo told reporters in Milwaukee. “He plays his (tail) off, guards the best player. We play faster. He was incredible today. We definitely need that. We need that spark. We need to play with that energy.”
Jackson started again Friday at Madison Square Garden, played 18 minutes, three points, one assist, one block as the Bucks lost to the Knicks.
*Frank Mozzicato (Ellington, East Catholic High), the Royals first-round draft pick in 2021, won a Rawlings Gold Glove for defensive excellence in minor-league baseball. Mozzicato did not make an error in 22 games, 101 2/3 innings (18 chances) with Class A Quad Cities. He pitched to a 3.45 ERA with 91 strikeouts.
*Ian Calabrese, an All-State guard at Simsbury High, now a senior at Clark University, has averaged 7.3 points per game and made 103 baskets from 3-point range. He’ll be home to play at Saint Joseph in West Hartford on Wednesday.
All the dates you need to catch the #HookC in 2025‼️ pic.twitter.com/CFDAn3doFW
— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) November 4, 2024
*Fun baseball fact: UConn will play Vanderbilt at Dodger Stadium on March 2. The Huskies also played a game at the Dodgers former home, Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, in 1959.
*Ryan Fuller, from Old Lyme and UConn, who parted ways with the Orioles’ organization after five years, three as assistant hitting coach, has joined the White Sox as director of hitting, a role in which he will be involved with instruction at all levels. Fuller, 34, helped develop a lot of good young hitters in Baltimore. The White Sox, after their 41-121 season, could only benefit.
*If I were voting on the Baseball Hall of Fame Classic Era ballot, released this week, I’d go with Luis Tiant, Dick Allen, Dave Parker and Tommy John.
Longtime UConn sports information director Tim Tolokan dies at 79
Last word
Rare is the man or woman who can keep the peace between the media and an institution. Rare is the one who can adapt to a landscape becoming as complicated as college athletics during the 1980s and ’90s. Tim Tolokan, who died this week at 79, was such a man. The reporters covering UConn basketball during his time swelled to become known as “The Horde,” but as a former newspaper reporter, he understood the job when he became UConn’s guru of sports information. He never obstructed a reporter trying to doing their job, treated us all, regardless of the size of our papers, fairly, yet always looked out for the athletic department’s interests and he gained respect and admiration from all sides. A good man, Tim was, and all that phrase implies.
.A funeral Mass will be held Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Church, 99 Jackson Street in Willimantic at 10:30 a.m. Assembly will be at church and burial will follow at Storrs Cemetery, 82 North Eagleville Road near the UConn campus.
