Top 10 Games of 2010-11 Countdown Game 7: Men's Soccer Big East Tournament First Round vs. DePaul

What: Men's Soccer Big East Tournament First Round vs. DePaul (original post)

When: Friday, November 5, 2010, 7:30 PM

Where: Joseph J. Morrone Stadium

Result: UConn wins 2-0

This was my first Big East postseason contest of any kind. Of course, the second would be just a day later but still, first is always memorable (which as a hint, will prove to be a theme throughout this countdown). Anyway, it was a great night for soccer although we didn't know if the game would be played or not until a few hours earlier. Heavy rains had postponed the game already, and we didn't know if the field would be suitable for play. I'm glad Goal Patrol didn't have to dredge the field like we shoveled it before an NCAA Tournament match a few years ago.

But anyway, the game itself was awesome. UConn won easily, 2-0, and I had a great time making fun of the DePaul goalkeeper. Even though it meant I had no voice for the Field Hockey tournament that weekend. Oh well. It was worth it. And then some old guy who was there with his high school kids assumed I was drunk (I hadn't even been drinking) and then assumed that I had consumed ALCOHOL from the cup of hot chocolate WHICH WASN'T EVEN MINE and quite clearly had had hot chocolate in it. Well, that was awkward. But hopefully our soccer team can have a better tournament result next year, and more hopefully, I can watch the NCAA Tournament game. I was at home for the contest vs. Brown this year, and couldn't even watch the webstream because it was down due to a power failure. We'll see.  For now, Go Huskies, and stay tuned next Monday for game number 6.

More Known UConn Games

The Hartford Hawks volleyball team recently released their schedule for next year, and it includes an October 4 contest at Storrs against the UConn Huskies. Time is still TBD. You can view other games which are known but have not been announced by UConn at this blog post and also view my post regarding our released Field Hockey schedule here. Also, the Hartford Courant reported the following known games for UConn women's basketball (source)

Thursday, November 3: vs. Assumption (exh)
Wednesday, November 9: vs. Pace (exh)
Sunday, November 13:v s. Holy Cross
Tuesday, November 15: vs. Pacific
Monday, November 21: vs. Stanford
Friday-Sunday November 25-27: Worldvision Challenge featuring UConn, Buffalo, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Dayton, not necessarily in that order
Wednesday, November 30: vs. Towson
Tuesday, December 6: vs. Texas A&M
Sunday, December 18: at Baylor
Wednesday, December 21: at College of Charleston
Wednesday or Thursday, December 28 or 29: vs. Fairfield
Monday, January 16: vs. UNC
MondAY, January 30: at Duke
Monday, February 13: at Oklahoma

all sites (as in Gampel or XL, not home or away) and times are TBD, except Texas A&M, which KBTX.com reports will be at Gampel Pavilion at 7:00 PM.

Furthermore, our men's basketball team will host Arkansas in the Big East/SEC Challenge on Saturday, December 3, site and time TBD.

Just some brief analysis: I'm disappointed that basketball is playing Stanford over Thanksgiving Break so I probably won't be able to attend. But Texas A&M should be fun. As should the three-day funfest that is the Worldvision Challenge. Hopefully I can get back to campus on Friday again.

I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

Top 10 Games of 2010-11 Countdown Number 8: Women's Field Hockey Big East Semifinal vs. Louisville

Number 8 on my Top 10 Games I attended at UConn in the 2010-11 season

What: Women's Field Hockey Big East Semifinal vs. Louisville (click here for original posting)

When: Saturday, November 6th, 2010, 1:30 PM

Where: George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex

Result: UConn win 2-1

This was the second Big East postseason event I attended. The first was the men's soccer game vs. DePaul the night before. I arrived at Sherman early in the morning, received my free admission ticket as a student of a Big East school, hung around for the first half of Syracuse-Rutgers, then went to get lunch at the Student Union during halftime. I returned during the second half and watched the Orange seal up a blowout victory, before staying in my seat to watch this game.

While it was awkward seeing the Huskies in their road blues at home, this was still a fun experience. We got the win over a very good Louisville team who had beaten us during the regular season. And it started looking good for us when the Cardinals' star player was ejected in the middle of the first half. We would go on to win this game 2-1. This was a fun-filled weekend of Big East matchups for me, between the men's soccer Friday night, and field hockey Saturday and Sunday, it was an awesome weekend. Unfortunately, we aren't hosting any Big East Tournament games in any sport next year, with the possible exception that Women's basketball may be in Hartford (it hasn't been announced). And of course, WBB won't be during Spring Break this year, so they may give us a bus down there. Who knows? The women's soccer semifinals and championship will be at Morrone Stadium in 2012, which should be fun. But since those don't actually start in the semifinals, the Huskies may have to win one or two games to get there. And it won't be fun if UConn isn't playing on our own campus. But I've got a year and a half until we get there. For now, stay tuned next week for game number 7. I may be posting it on Tuesday due to Memorial Day on Monday. There's also a possibility I'll post it Sunday evening, (hopefully) along with some commentary on our baseball team (hopefully) winning the Big East championship. Stay tuned, and go Huskies!

Field Hockey Schedule Released

For those who didn't know, our 2011 Field Hockey schedule has been released. You can find it here. Here are our home games:

Friday, August 26: vs. Hofstra, noon (Husky Invitational)
Saturday, August 27: Hofstra vs. Stanford, 1:00 PM (Husky Invitational)
Sunday, August 28: vs. Stanford, 5:00 PM (Husky Invitational)
Saturday, September 10: vs. Albany, Noon
Sunday, September 11: vs. Drexel, 2:00 PM
Saturday, September 17: vs. Villanova, Noon
Sunday, September 18: vs. Boston College, 2:00 PM
Wednesday, September 28: vs. UMass, 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 1: vs. Louisville, Noon
Sunday, October 16: vs. Princeton, 2:00 PM
Wednesday, October 19: vs. Boston University, 7:00 PM
Sunday, October 23: vs. Syracuse, Noon

Some notes:

• Only one of these games will be played on the game day as a home football game: Louisville on October 1 on the same day football plays Western Michigan. This should help me attend more FH games.


• The game vs. Princeton on October 16 may conflict with the second half of women's soccer vs. West Virginia, which I believe begins at 1:00. More info here. This also happened with this past year's Princeton Field Hockey game and women's soccer vs. DePaul. Furthermore, since I do not believe we have any more home games for women's soccer after that (if I understand the Big East schedule format correctly) the WVU game will also be Senior Day, thus potentially leading to another case where I can't even see the whole soccer first half.


• In addition to conflicting with Football, the October 1 match will also end right before the women's volleyball game vs. Marquette starts (assuming the Marquette athletic website did not mislead me). Should football have a night game, I could potentially see THREE games that day, which would be a record. We will see how that goes.


• Other sports' schedules should be released over the next couple weeks most likely. Stay tuned!

Top 10 2010-11 List Game 9: Baseball vs. Holy Cross, March 22

Game number 9 in the top 10 games I attended.

What: Baseball vs. Holy Cross (link)

When: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 3:00 PM

Where: J.O. Christian Field

Result: Tie 2-2, 16 innings

This was the first UConn baseball game I ever attended. It was also the first outdoor event I had attended since Hockey Fest and the first one on-campus since the Field Hockey Big East Final on November 7. The weather was cold and dreary, but I stuck it out for the whole four hour, 16 inning game. (On a side note, I am impressed that this game was shorter than some nine-inning Yankees-Red Sox games, but that's besides the point).

Of course, I was as disappointed as anyone when it was called due to darkness, but I toughed it out. I could have stopped being a fan of UConn baseball right then and there, but I didn't. And now we are Big East Champions.

I will always remember this as being the first UConn baseball game I ever saw, just as I will remember the Tigers-Yankees game on April 11, 1999 as being the first Yankees game I ever attended. And since I missed the top of the first inning of this one as I was late arriving due to class, LJ Mazilli was the first Huskies batter and the first batter in general that I saw. And of course, just as Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of that game, possibly cementing my place as a lifelong Yankees fan, I will always remember the thrill of the 16-inning dogfight in this game, even if it didn't end as I had hoped.

On an interesting note, just as I mentioned in my post for Game #10 that Boston University was my first opponent I saw in three different sports, the Holy Cross Crusaders women's basketball team were the visitors the first time I saw a UConn regular season game in that sport.

Game #8 is coming up next Monday. There may be more commentary before then, plus discussion of any schedules should they be released. Until then, Go Huskies!

Looking Ahead: Next Year's Schedules

No UConn team other than football has announced their schedule for 2011 yet. Most teams normally release their schedules around my birthday (June 17). Field Hockey and Men's Ice Hockey actually released theirs on my birthday. Hopefully I will get similar birthday presents this year.

In any case, I have managed to piece together a few known games using other teams' schedules which have been released. If you discover any others, shoot me an email. Note that when I started to compile this list I included all games but then decided to only include home games. So, some but not all known away games are included.

Field Hockey:

Saturday, September 10: vs. Albany, Noon
Saturday, September 24: @ Providence, 1:00 PM
Saturday, October 1: vs. Louisville, Noon
Sunday, October 23: vs. Syracuse, Noon

Women's Soccer:

Friday, August 19: vs. Northeastern, 7:00 PM
Thursday, September 15: vs. Syracuse, TBD
Sunday, September 18: @ St. John's, 1:00 PM
Friday, September 23: vs. Louisville, 7:00 PM
Sunday, September 25: vs. Cincinnati, 1:00 PM
Friday, October 14: vs. Pitt, TBD?*
Sunday, October 16: vs. West Virginia, 1:00 PM
Saturday, October 22: @ Providence, 1:00 PM

*- Judging by the travel partner rule, we should be playing Pitt on the 14th at home. I don't have a time though, because they have not announced their schedule.

Men's Soccer:

Saturday, October 1: @ Louisville, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, October 19: @ West Virginia, 7:00 PM

(Note: almost all of our home games last year were at 7:30, but in previous years they have been at 7:00. All of our games this year that I could find are listed at 7:00. I do not know if this is an error or if we will be returning to playing games at that time).


Volleyball:

Saturday, October 1: vs. Marquette, 2:00 PM
Sunday, October 2: vs. Syracuse, 2:00 PM
Edit 5/15/2011, 3:19 PM: I found the following additional games:

Men's soccer vs. California: September 4th, 7:00 PM

Stats Spreadsheet is Available

I have created a stats spreadsheet with Google Docs. You can view it here. It contains info sport-by-sport as well as opponent-by-opponent. I will be updating it throughout next season and may add more details to it over the summer. Anyone can access it through that link. Note that the list of games will still be available on the Game Log above, and I will be adding this link to the above bar too if Wordpress will allow me to do so.

Blog Update re: Top 10 List

In order to create more interest over the course of the summer, I will be releasing Top 10 list one game a week instead of one game a day. I will also possibly be providing commentary on schedules when they come out. Here is a schedule of Top 10 releases, which will be every Monday (except this week's, which was released yesterday)

Schedule of Releases:

Game 10: Sunday, May 8th

Game 9: Monday, May 16th

Game 8: Monday, May 23rd

Game 7: Monday, May 30th (may be moved to Tuesday due to Memorial Day Holiday)

Game 6: Monday, June 6th

Game 5: Monday, June 13th

Game 4: Monday, June 20th

Game 3: Monday, June 27th

Game 2: Monday, July 4th (may be moved to Tuesday due to Independence Day)

Game 1: Monday, July 11th

Stay tuned

Top Ten 2010-11 Number 10: Men's Soccer vs. Boston University, August 28

First, let me give you some background information on this. This is only the Top 10 games I attended. Hence, no basketball Big East or NCAA Tournament games (with the exception of the women's First Round NCAA) were eligible for inclusion. So before you ask "why wasn't Game X included?" check to be sure I was there.

Here we go with number 10:

What: Men's Soccer vs. Boston University (Game #1)

Where: Joseph J. Morrone Stadium

When: August 28, 2010, 7:30 PM

Result: Win 1-0

Where else to start this Top 10 but with my first UConn game ever? I decided to attend the Goal Patrol meeting and the game basically on a whim that morning, and I was instantly hooked on UConn soccer. Had I not attended this meeting, perhaps I would not be nearly the UConn fan I am now.

Although this was only an exhibition, there were several hundred students in the Goal Patrol, most of which I would never see at another meeting. It was tied after regulation, but we made a penalty kick in OT to win 1-0. It was a great experience for me to be at this game. Ultimately, it made me decide to go back for many more UConn games, and ultimately other sports as well. It was the beginning of my epoch as a UConn sports fan, and for that reason, it is memorable.

If there are any incoming freshmen reading this blog, I would encourage you to come to our opening meeting and game next year. It will probably be the Saturday of WOW Weekend. You won't regret it. And even if you do, don't go to any more games - you'll have wasted about two hours of your time. Even less if you decide to leave early because you hate it. That's fine; at least you'll have tried. But it was this first meeting that got me hooked on UConn sports - and it can do the same for you.

Game #9 will be posted tomorrow

Softball Tomorrow

Even though I have already wrapped up this season, I might attend the first game of the softball doubleheader vs. Notre Dame tomorrow. A review will be posted and it will be counted towards the 2010-11 season game count. Stay tuned!

Update: I was not able to attend. Game #10 in Top 10 to be posted later today (Monday)