Game 3-3-102: Women's Field Hockey exhibition vs. Quinnipaic

What: Field Hockey exhibition vs. Quinnipiac
Where: Sherman Family Sports Complex
When: Thursday August 16, 12:00 PM
Result: Win, 6-1

The players warming up
before the match.

From 10:00-11:35, I was in philosophy class for the last time before the final. Fortunately, my class was in the Classroom Building, a two minute walk from the Sherman Family Sports Complex. I stopped by the Student Union to have a quick lunch, then walked across the street to Sherman.

Field hockey exhibitions are a bit different from regular season games. They have three periods of 25 minutes, instead of two halves of 35 minutes. Also, the scoreboard reset the score after each period. We lost the first period 1-0, won the second period by the same score, and won the third period 5-0. The total above reflects the combined score.

There was a family sitting behind me, and their daughter was on the team, I guess. They were cheering really loudly when she scored a goal. Unfortunately, I don't know who "she" is, because there were no roster sheets and no P.A. system. However, the player was laughing about it, and about how vocal her family was. Reminds me of my family. :-)

Melissa Gonzalez (left, in white)
and an unknown fan (in blue).

Surprisingly, as I said, we were down 1-0 after the first period to a far lesser team in the Bobcats. But we evened the score in the second on a penalty stroke, and scored five goals in the third to win 6-1. One of those goals came on a penalty stroke. Strange to have two penalty strokes in the same game.

Early in the first period, UConn alumnus Melissa Gonzalez came into the stands, fresh off her Olympic performance. She was wearing her Team USA Warmup jersey. It's hard to tell in the photo, but there was a really big Nike Swoosh on there on the right side, as well as some bizarre lime green piping in the collar area. Seemed kind of weird. Lime green is not a national color, why is it on our USA warmups?

In any case, Gonzalez got a warm welcome from the fans, most of whom recalled her time as a player. In an otherwise ordinary exhibition, Gonzalez added some excitement to the fans in the seats. Even though USA finished last among 12 teams, it's still impressive that she made the team, went to London, and competed.

Game 3-1-100: Women's Soccer exhibition vs. LIU

What: Women's soccer vs. LIU-Brooklyn
Where: Morrone Stadium
When: 1:00 PM, Sunday, August 12, 2012
Result: Win 2-1

This was my first game of the year, and my 100th game over all. Exciting! And considering it was an exhibition, you could say the same about the game.

The players warm up before the match. 

UConn came out wearing their gray warm-up uniforms for the whole game. At first I thought they were just wearing them for practice, but they wore them the whole game. And LIU's uniforms had no numbers. Strange.

UConn got off to a 1-0 lead just before the half, thanks to a Linda Ruutu goal off a free kick. We went up 2-0 later, when we scored a goal in the second half. In the end, it was 2-1.

Not very exciting in general, but for an exhibition game it was. The real action starts next weekend, but this was just to get us (and the players) warmed up.

What kind of a name is Blackbirds, by the way? Hardly intimidating, unless it's 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

Next up is a men's soccer game vs. UMass tonight. The Goal Patrol (or some of them) will be there. It should be fun. Details to come.

Women's Soccer exhibition vs. Northeastern CANCELLED

The women's soccer exhibition vs. Northeastern has been cancelled. Two games on Sunday - one women's soccer, and one men's soccer, are next up. The weather shows patchy fog for that day, but no rain. I'll be at both.

UConn Sports Roundup, November 3rd, 2011

Here's to great years for both of our hoops teams!

Men's Basketball: Good showing in the exhibition last night as the Huskies beat  American International by a convincing score of 78-35. Jeremy Lamb had 17 points and Shabazz Napier had 15. Ryan Boatright did not play due to eligibility issues. Let's look forward to the actual season, but first the second exhibition, Sunday vs. CW Post at XL Center. The first real game is Friday, November 11th vs. Columbia at 7:00 PM.

Women's Basketball: The women host Assumption in an exhibition at 7:30 PM at Gampel. Coverage is on UConnHuskies.com and WTIC.

Men's Soccer: The first round of the Big East Tournament will be tonight at 6:00 PM at Morrone Stadium. The Huskies will host DePaul. With a win, we will face off on Sunday afternoon at Rutgers at 1:00 PM. Currently, the Huskies are #4 in the RPI computer rankings but only 7th in the Coaches' Poll. Top four teams in the NCAA Tournament are assured of home games through the quarterfinals and then the neutral-site College Cup. If we can win the Big East Tournament, we have a good chance of being one of them.

Field Hockey: And of course, the Field Hockey Big East Tournament is this weekend. Tomorrow at 12:30, the Huskies face the Louisville Cardinals at 12:30 PM. Then, the host team Syracuse will play Villanova at 3:00 PM. The winners face off on Sunday at 1:00 and all games are free live online at Bigeast.tv.