STORRS – Kaitlyn Mahoney was the Big East goalkeeper of the year last season and was the preseason conference pick again in August.
But Mahoney struggled a little midseason and did not play in two games – an Oct. 3 win over Providence and an Oct. 6 loss to Creighton.
Mahoney, a graduate student who is studying for her doctorate in chemical engineering, rebounded and came back in the next game, a 3-0 win over Marquette. Currently, she’s been one of the keys to the Huskies’ six-game win streak, including their first Big East tournament championship since 2004 and their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016.
Mahoney had a season-high seven saves in the 2-1 overtime win over Xavier in the Big East championship game and six saves in a 2-1 first round NCAA Tournament win over Rutgers Saturday.
UConn (14-4-4) will face No. 3 Stanford, which lost to Florida State in the College Cup final last year and won national championships in 2017 and 2019, Friday at 4 p.m. in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Fayetteville, Ark. Stanford (14-4-1) started off the season 10-1 but ended the regular season on a 3-3-1 note.
Last year, UConn lost in the Big East Tournament semifinals and did not get an NCAA Tournament bid. That sparked the Huskies’ run this season.
“We got disrespected,” said UConn coach Margaret Rodriguez, who took over the program in 2018 after long-time coach Len Tsantiris retired. “We were on the bubble and didn’t get in and it kind of fueled us. We were not leaving it up to the committee this year to not let us in. We took matters into our own hands.
“Then we got into the NCAAs and it was: ‘We have to reframe our goal now. Our goal is to advance.’”
UConn had lost to Creighton and Georgetown and tied Xavier 1-1 during the regular season. The Huskies beat all three, including Xavier in the final, in the Big East tournament.
“It was like a revenge tour,” Mahoney said. “Redemption. We knew those were games we wanted back. We didn’t play to our full potential, and we had a second opportunity, and we weren’t going to let it slip away. We knew we needed to win the Big East to get where we wanted to get for NCAAs.”
Mahoney said her struggles in the midseason were mental, but she was confident the team could carry on.
“I knew even though I wasn’t at the best of my ability at the time, I knew I had people around me who could step in and work hard and they were 100 percent at the time, and I wasn’t,” she said. “Everyone goes through their struggles once in a while but it’s a testament to how you can bounce back and how you can learn and grow from things that you may be struggling with.
“I’m almost at a different place mentally. I’m in a place, I’m here to play, I want to keep playing and I want to do it with this team.”
UConn’s defense has been solid as well, allowing two goals in the last five games.
Lucy Cappadona, another graduate student who plays defense, left the Big East championship game on crutches after an opponent slammed into her knee. It seemed serious but it was diagnosed as a bone bruise. Doctors still didn’t think Cappadona would be able to play against Rutgers, Rodriguez said. If she did, maybe she would only play limited minutes.
Not only did Cappadona play – 90 minutes – she scored the game-winning goal against Rutgers off a corner kick.
“That just sums her up,” Rodriguez said. “You have to rip her off the field.”
That’s how it’s been for the Huskies lately.
“For us to have gone this far – I don’t know many people who thought we’d get this far,” Mahoney said. “But we have that belief and drive. We’re not done yet.”
