UConn Sports Roundup, September 28-30, 2011

Note: Due to Rosh Hashanah, this post includes information I would post through September 30th, which includes information on weekend contests as well, to the extent that I would mention them between now and Friday. I will likely post Friday night after sundown, but in case I don't, here goes....

Men's Soccer: Last night very nearly proved to be a disaster against lowly Yale for the Huskies. The score was 0-0 after regulation. That was only because Yale misfired just over the crossbar as time expired in the second half. It would have been a split second call as to whether it was a goal or not. In real-time it was clear it was past the crossbar (and goal line) prior to the horn, but the horn isn't automatically sounded at 0:00. There's a second delay or so. So if that ball had gone in, however they called it would have ignited furor. But thankfully for all of us, it missed high. Also thankfully, Nickardo Blake scored with one minute left in the second OT to spare us all the pain of a scoreless draw. The Huskies are a perfect 9-0-0 and will face #8 Louisville in a critical road test at 7 PM Saturday night. The Cardinals are looking to bounce back from a loss to Notre Dame and don't want to start 0-2 in Big East play to expect them to come out hungry. No word yet on whether that game will be on WHUS. GameTracker will be available however, though. Louisville currently does not list the game on All-Access although they do list future men's soccer games there. I'm guessing there's some reason none of these places can confirm that they're broadcasting it. What that reason is, I don't know.

Field Hockey: The Huskies go under the lights at Sherman tonight to face the UMass Minutewomen. The Huskies are 7-1 overall and tied for first in the Big East at 2-0 in conference. And the soccer team isn't the only Top-5 Huskies program to play Louisville in a major contest Saturday night. Louisville, who got the two seed in the Big East Tournament a year ago but was knocked out by the Huskies in the first round, will be back in Storrs for the first time since that weekend in November. That game will be on Saturday at 12:00 PM. The Cardinals are 1-1 in Big East play and 7-3 overall. And unlike the Huskies, they've already played (and lost to) Syracuse. And while regular season titles may not matter much, bear in mind that in all likelihood the "Big Three" are going to get the top three seeds in some order. And the #4 seed will be a weaker team. So the #1 seed has an easy first game (provided they don't fall into a trap) while #2 and #3 still have to fight it out to get there. Look at last year as an example. So getting the #1 seed matters here. That way come Syracuse and the first weekend in November, we can hopefully do to the Orange what they did to us last year at our place. But for now, take it one game at a time. Beat Louisville at Sherman. Then worry about the next game.

Football: The Huskies are back at home on Saturday against Western Michigan. Since there will be significant development between now and then most likely, I'll write something on this Saturday.

Women's Soccer: The Huskies will be on national TV this Friday night as they head to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. This was supposed to be a good game and a rematch of the Huskies' upset last year in the Big East Tournament but both teams have disappointed. The Irish have dropped out of the poll, and the Huskies are barely .500. ESPN can't do anything now though, so that game will air on ESPNU at 7:30 PM. Also, audio is available on WHUS. The Huskies will continue play on Sunday, facing DePaul at 2:00 PM in Chicago.

Women's Ice Hockey: The Huskies host Rensaleer (or RPI, depending on where you look. Same school, different name) for a two-game series beginning Friday night at 7:00 at Frietas Ice Forum. They'll conclude the series Saturday at 3:00 PM.

Men's Ice Hockey: The Men's Ice Hockey team will host Ryerson (another Canadian school) in an exibition contest Saturday at 8:00 PM. The regular season gets underway next Saturday with a trip to Bowling Green.

Women's Volleyball: The Huskies are looking to bounce back from a bad road trip as come home for two more Big East contests. On Saturday at 2:00 PM, Marquette rolls into Gampel Pavilion, and on Sunday at the same time, the Syracuse Orange will do the same. For those of you hoops fans who just can't wait until February 25 to see the Orange come into Gampel, this is your chance. Those who can, who said you could only pick one? Admission to this one is free to everybody. And would any true Husky fan would miss a chance to see a UConn-Syracuse game at Gampel for free? I think not.

Delayed Weekend Roundup - UConn Update through September 20, 2011 (CORRECTED)

Sorry for the delay. Big news over the weekend with regards to the ACC. I'll put up something about that soon. For now, here's the latest.

MAJOR NEWS: There are multiple reports surfacing that UConn may join a super-ACC within the next few years. I will speculate on this soon.

Women's Soccer: The Huskies fell to 4-4-0 on the season after losing to Big East foe St. John's 1-0 in OT. The Huskies were dominated by the Red Storm, outshot 10-3 in Queens before Jen Leaverton added the game winning goal at the 91:23 minute. Next Friday, the Huskies will host Louisville at 7:00 PM before hosting Cincinnati on Sunday the 25th at 1:00 PM. 10 days remain until the nationally televised showdown at Notre Dame on ESPNU at 7:30 PM on September 30th.

Field Hockey: The Huskies suffered their first defeat of the year, losing 3-1 to the #8 ranked Boston College Eagles at home. Cara Silverman added a goal in the loss. The Huskies are in Providence on Saturday at 1:00 PM for a Big East road game. The national poll is due out today sometime, so stay tuned to see where we are.

Men's Soccer: Big game for the Huskies today as they head to Chestnut Hill at 7:00 PM to face Boston College. This is the big road trip of the year for Goal Patrol, so expect a lot of road Huskies fans. We are currently ranked #2 in the nation at 6-0-0. Webstreaming is available on bceagles.com and also a radio is available from WHUS. On a side note, don't expect me to comment on the crackdown on heckling at Morrone Stadium this year, because not being there, I don't know what's going on. But I have no problem with what's been working for the past forever. Family-friendly and squeaky clean are two different things. If I were going a game with a young child, I would make sure we didn't sit near the student section. I can understand why people would feel the same way. But on the rare occasions where someone does say something totally outlandish, we're usually pretty good about getting that individual to shut up or behave. And if we're not, then security can get involved, though in my whole time last year, I only recall that happening once. I don't know all the facts, but I do know what it was like last year. And I see no reason to change a working system. If any Goal Patrol members who are on campus wish to comment, go ahead.

In any case, after BC, the Huskies will host the St. John's Red Storm in the #6 rivalry in America Saturday at 7:30 PM. The school is expecting a sell-out for "White Out Morrone Night" and it should be a rocking.

Women's Ice Hockey: The Huskies open up with an exhibition vs. McGill on Friday at 7:00 PM. McGill is supposedly the "Harvard of Canada". But, you know what Lisa Simpson always says. Ah well, it's only an exhibition game. The real fun starts a week later. The Huskies made the Hockey East first round of the tournament, before falling to Northeastern. They will look to improve and reach the NCAA Championship.

Note: A previous version of this post indicated that the men's soccer team's next game after tonight would be against Yale, followed by Louisville. However, in fact the St. John's game is before those two matchups. The error has been remedied. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

UConn Sports Roundup, Sepetmber 17th (UPDATE 2 PM)

Men's Soccer: The Huskies defeated the Boston University Terriers 1-0. The game against the unranked home team was tightly contested throughout before Allando Matheson scored his first career goal to put the Huskies up for good. Over the last few year, Boston University has given us a lot of trouble so this is a good win. Next up, we travel to Boston College to face the Eagles at 7:30 PM on Tuesday night. That game is available on WHUS org streaming videos on bceagles.com. Read the officicial press release on the game here.

Football: The Huskies suffered a disappointing loss  24-20 to the visiting Iowa State Cyclones to fall to 1-2 on the season. We had a lot of chances but couldn't capitalized, pretty much the same story as the Vanderbilt game. If we keep playing like this it could be a long year. We have a week non-conference schedule and have Buffalo and Western Michigan remaining. If we can win both of those games we only need to go 3-4 in Big East play to make a bowl game. That's certainly doable. But we have to improve our ability to capitalize on our opportunities.

Women's Volleyball: The Huskies opened the Hokie Classic with a 3-0 sweep of Chatanooga to improve to 7-4 on the season. Next up they will take on Virginia today at 1:00 PM and host Virginia Tech at 7:00 PM. Then, the Huskies will open up Big East play with a road trip to Cincinnati and Louisville.

Field Hockey: The #4 Huskies open up Big East play tonight at noon against unranked Villanova then will host Boston College on Sunday at 2:00 PM. Both games can be seen live on Huskies All-Access. The Huskies can move up in the rankings with a win thanks to a loss by #1 UNC to #2 Old Dominion. So this is a big weekend.


Update: Field Hockey defeated Villanova 6-0 to win their conference opener. Ali Blankmeyer and Chloe Hunnable led the way with two goals each and Marine Elene Bolles and Justine Angelini added a goal each for the major victory. The game vs. the #8 BC Eagles will be huge tomorrow, and if we win that we may very well be ranked #3 in the nation. On next Saturday (September 24th) we will take on Providence on the road looking to stay perfect, then on September 28th we host UMass, who received votes in the last coach's poll. We then have a somewhat big home game vs. RV Louisville on October 1. The Cardinals were expect to contend for the Big East championship, but it looks like at this point that if someone's going to challenge the ACC from the Big East, it's going to be UConn or Syracuse. The Huskies and Orange face off Sunday, October 23 in Storrs. But the Big East Tournament is in Syracuse the first weekend in November and who wins that could very well host a regional in the NCAA Tournament which carries with it additional home field advantage. That's pretty far down the road though, and they came into our place and beat us last year so it wouldn't be surprising for us to do the same to them.

Husky Sports Roundup, September 16th, 2011

Football: Big game today as the 1-1 Huskies host the Iowa State Cyclones to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Vanderbilt that frankly, we should have won. Kick off is at 8:00 PM on ESPN2 live from Rentschler Field. For those going to the game, arrive early for a special 9/11 tribute.

Women's soccer: The Huskies improved to 4-3-0 by winning their Big East opener 1-0 over Syracuse. Jessica Dulski had her third shutout on the season, an impressive total for the senior. 11:49 in the game, Danielle Schullman made it 1-0, to put the Huskies up for good. Wind and were definitely a factor for both teams with limited opportunities. Next up the Huskies travel to Queens to face St. John's at 1:00 PM on Sunday. That game will be streamed by St. John's at here.

Men's Soccer: Two New England matchups for the #2 Huskies who go on the road this week. First, today at 7:00 PM they travel to Boston University to face the Terriers. Streaming is available on BU's website. Next, the Huskies will travel to face #11 Boston College at 7:30 PM on Tuesday on the road. That will be a major road test for the Huskies. It will also be the annual Goal Patrol road trip game.

Women's Volleyball: The Huskies will get underway in Blacksburg, Va in the Hokie Invitation as they take on Chattanooga (today, 4:00 PM), Virginia (Sat. 1:00 PM), and Virginia Tech (Sat., 7:00 PM). The Huskies are 6-4 this year. After finishing up the pre-season tournament run around, the Huskies will travel to Cincinnati and Louisville on September 23rd and 25th to get Big East season unerway.

Field Hockey: The 5-0 and #4 Huskies open Big East play on Saturday afternoon vs. Villanova at noon. That game will be on Huskies All Access. On Sunday afternoon at 2 PM the Huskies will host the #8 Boston College Eagles. Another critical matchup among ranked teams, and we could move up in the rankings since #1 UNC plays #2 Old Dominion today and one of those teams has to lose.

That's all for now. Go Huskies!

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/091511aab.html

UConn Sports Roundup, September 10, 2011

Miscellaneous Blog/Personal News: My surgery is Monday. If you want to know more, email me. In any case, this will render me unable to post on the blog for about a week, maybe a little less. If you want updates on your favorite teams, check out the Athletic Website.

Football: The big travel game for the Huskies is today at 7:30 PM at Vanderbilt. That game will air locally on SNY and ESPN3.com (though the latter will likely be showing the Comcast Sports South Broadcast). Also, the SNY broadcast is not Big East Regional Television so I have no idea if it's the same production crew. In any case, the Huskies QB situation is still not settled, though I think McCummings and McEntee will get most of the playing time. And now we may see issues at running back too after Lyle McCombs had a great week last week while presumed starter DJ Shoemate was hurt. There are a lot of questions to be answered when the Huskies take the field tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

Men's Soccer: The #3 team in the country defeated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane as part of the Hurricane Classic. The final score was 1-0. Mamadou Doudou Diouf got a goal in the 25th minute. Next up, the Huskies will take on SMU at 12:30 PM Sunday, also in Tulsa. That game is on WHUS.org and WHUS 91.7 FM.

Field Hockey: The #4 ranked Huskies host Albany today at noon and Drexel tomorrow at 2 PM. Next weekend, the Huskies open Big East play on Saturday when they host Villanova. They will then host Boston College on Sunday the 18th.

Women's Soccer: The Huskies defeated #20/23 Boston University, 3-0. It snapped BU's 5-game win streak. The Huskies are now 3-2-0, after their win before 1,404 fans. It was scoreless at halftime, but Danielle Schullman scored in the 53rd minute, and Julie Hubbard and Jessica Prendergast added goals later on to seal the deal. Next up, the Huskies will travel to Harvard on Sunday at 1 PM to face the Crimson.

Women's Volleyball: The Huskies defeated Fairfield three sets to one in the opener of the UNH Tournament. The Huskies will face Indiana State at 10 AM today and the host New Hampshire Wildcats at 7 PM to wrap up the tournament. The Huskies are 5-3 on the season and have already won one tournament at home.

Basketball: UConn agreed yesterday to play in the second edition of the Carrier Classic in 2012. UConn will play a game atop a military aircraft carrier in San Diego Bay, on November 9, 2012. Their opponent is TBD but may be Kansas, Texas, Florida, Arizona, or Illinois. This is very exciting for the Huskies to be doing something like this.

UConn Sports Update, September 8, 2011

First of all, I'd like to wish a happy Birthday to my wonderful sister, Leanne. Second of all, I'll be having the surgery for my medical issues on Monday, so I won't be posting for a while after Sunday. I could be gone a week, maybe longer. I really don't know yet. (If you want more info on my medical issues, email me. I don't want to post it publicly.)

And now for the roundup.

Women's Volleyball: UConn won the first set vs. Sacred Heart on Tuesday evening, but lost the next three to lose the match. You can read the UConn release here. Jordan Kirk had a season high 17 kills. The final line score was 21-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-19. The Huskies fall to 4-3 and will be in Durham, NH for games against Fairfield, Indiana State, and New Hampshire. Fairfield will be tomorrow at 4:30 PM, ISU Saturday at 10 AM, and UNH Saturday at 7 PM.

Field Hockey: In a surprise, UConn is still ranked #4 in the latest poll, behind UNC, Old Dominion, and Maryland. The Monarchs play tough games this weekend in Columbus against #5 Syracuse and Ohio State, so we could move up if they fall. ODU and UNC face off against eachother September 16th, so one of them will lose.

Men's Soccer: UConn is ranked #3 in the latest coaches poll, behind UNC and Maryland. Is this ACC bias, or a deserved snub? We will see.

Football: Football team travels to Vanderbilt this weekend at 7:30 PM on SNY. This will NOT be a Big East Regional Network game, and I don't know if SNY is producing it themselves, simulcasting Comcast Sports South's broadcast of it from Vandy's end, or  something else entirely. The only home game which is scheduled as of now to be on SNY Only and not BETV is October 1 vs. Western Michigan. So, that would not be a simulcast of the home team. As for the game itself, the Huskies are 1.5 point favorites. This will be a key game for the season as it will show if they can win the tough contests. This is the big travel game for Husky fans and the band, and it could turn out to be like the Michigan game last year  - an  overhyped loss. Let's hope not.

Husky Sports Roundup, September 5th, 2011

Field Hockey: The #4 Huskies defeated #8 Penn State 2-1, in overtime. Kim Krzyk netted the game winner. The Huskies improve to 3-0 on the season, and may improve to #2 in the rankings tonight thanks to losses by #1 Maryland and #3 Virginia. Next up, the Huskies host Albany on Saturday, September 10th, at noon, followed by Drexel the next day at 2 PM. This could be a big year for the team.

Women's soccer: Women's soccer lost to #25 Virginia Tech, 1-0. The Huskies struggled to get shots off and this game could have been a lot were if Jess Dulski hadn't made a lot of saves off Hokie shots. Next up, the 2-2 Huskies host Boston University at 7:00 PM on Friday. This may be a rebuilding year for the Huskies, but the Big East schedule will be a big test for them. That begins on Thursday, September 15th when they host Syracuse.

Men's soccer: The #5 ranked men's soccer team beat #7 California yesterday, 4-1. Mamadou Doudou Diouf recorded a hat-trick, including two PK goals, and Tony Cascio added his first goal of the season in the victory. The Huskies said before the opener it was their goal to only allow five goals this season. That doesn't look like it's going to happen as they've already conceded two in three games, but this could still be a very good year. When the rankings come out today, look for them to maybe move up. Next up, the team will be in Tulsa on the 9th and 11th (Friday and Sunday) for games against the host Golden Hurricane and SMU. The first game will be at 8:30 PM Eastern time, and they will take on the Mustangs at 12:30 PM Eastern time. Both games will be on WHUS 91.7 FM/WHUS.org.

UConn Sports Roundup, September 3, 2011 (UPDATED 9/4/11, 8:54 AM)

Football: In the premier UConn game of the day, the UConn football team defeated the Fordham Rams, 35-3. You can also read the official release here. As for the game, this was a blowout, and not unexpected. Michael Nebrich, Scotty McCummings, and Johnny McEntee all saw playing time. On a side note, does anyone else think Johnny McEntee sounds like he should be someone in a comic book? But I digress. Another surprise was Lyle McCombs starting at running back over DJ Shoemate. No word yet on whether that will be permanent, but given his good showing (141 yards and 4 TD's) I would expect Coach Pasqualoni to start him at Vandy next week. It's a good start to the season, but we'll have to beat better teams to make a difference.

Women's Volleyball: In their second game of the Toyota UConn Classic, the Huskies swept Holy Cross 3-0. Next up is Binghamton tonight at 7:30 to wrap up the tournament. Read more about the win over the Crusaders here. The Huskies are 3-2 on the season. Update 9/4/11 8:54 AM: The Huskies swept the Bearcats last night 3-0. Senior Jordan Kirk was named the tournament MVP, and was joined on the All-Tournament team by fellow Huskies Mattison Quayle and Kelsey Manning. The Huskies are now 4-2 on the season. Next up, the Huskies host Sacred Heart on September 6th at 7:30 PM. You can watch that game on Huskies All-Access.

Women's Soccer: The Huskies got a big win against #15/17 Wake Forest last night in Winston-Salem. Thanks to a goal by Danielle Schulman, and a winner by Devin Prendergast at 83:46, the Huskies beat the previously-undefeated Demon Deacons 2-1 and are now 2-1-0. Next up is Virginia Tech on Sunday, also in Winston-Salem. That game is at 11:30 AM and will be on WHUS 91.7 FM/WHUS.org.

Men's Soccer: As previously mentioned, the Huskies play a huge game vs. California tomorrow at 4:30 PM. The Golden Bears are #7 in the country. That game will be on WHUS.org/WHUS 91.7 FM and All-Access.

Field Hockey:  Another major game for the Huskies tomorrow, as they travel to Penn State to face the #8 Nittany Lions. With a win, the Huskies would likely move up to #2 nationally thanks to losses by #1 Maryland and #3 Virginia. #2 UNC beat #5 Syracuse, so the Huskies will likely be #2 to the Tar Heels when the rankings come out Monday if they pull off the win.

Softball: The 2012 softball schedule is up on the website. Find it here. I will post in more detail about it when a press release is published.

Baseball: We can now begin to fill in bits and pieces of the 2012 schedule. St. John's released their Big East schedule. The Huskies will travel to Kaiser Stadium in Queens April 13-15. That should be a big series, as always. Also, Sacred Heart's website shows them hosting the Huskies on March 13 at a time to be determined. Let's see if we can fill in more pieces before UConn releases their full schedule. That has typically been anywhere from mid-October to mid-December, so let's wait and see.

Miscellaneous: UConn started a new Husky blog today, called "UConn Believe It". You can find it at UConnHuskies.com/blog.  They also invite you to comment on today's football game here. I hope that the blog will give recognition to the Husky sports besides basketball and football. Both posts were about today's football game, but let's hope they post about other sports. If so, I give them a lot of credit. If not, that's what I do. Keep reading here.

Husky Sports Roundup September 1, 2011

Today's roundup

Football: The football game vs. Fordham originally scheduled for tonight will now be Saturday at noon. Saturday is my dad's birthday so I will probably be out with him at that time. I may catch some of it on the radio, I'm really not sure. Either way, we'll see there. Should be a blowout anyway.

Men's soccer: UConn defeated Michigan State tonight 2-1. Mamadou Douodou Diouf scored his first goal of the season and Max Wasserman added the game winner on a free kick. Next up is a huge game vs. California Sunday at 7:30 4:30 PM at Morrone Stadium. The game was originally scheduled for 7:30 but has been changed because of power outages. No word yet on whether it will air on WHUS and/or All-Access.

Women's Soccer: The women's soccer team heads on the road for the first time this year. Tomorrow, they will face Wake Forest in Winston-Salem at 6:00 PM and on Sunday, they will face Virginia Tech in Winston-Salem at 11:30 AM. The former will be available on Wake Forest's website, and both will be on WHUS 91.7 FM and WHUS.org (although the audio on the Demon Deacon's site will be theirs). UConn is 1-1 so far this season.

Women's Volleyball: Toyota UConn Classic starts tomorrow night. Binghamton vs. Howard at 5:00, then the Huskies take on Holy Cross at 7:30. On Saturday, each team plays two games. The Bearcats face the Crusaders at 10:00 AM, followed by the Huskies taking on Howard at 12:30. Then at 5:00, it's Howard-Holy Cross, followed by UConn-Binghamton at 7:30 to close it out.

Men's and Women's Basketball: Both teams released their full schedules yesterday. The women's basketball game on Martin Luther King Day will be at Gampel, so I can attend that one when I (finally) return to campus. Also my first week back, the men host Cincinnati at 7:00 at Gampel. On a related note, if any UConn seniors are graduating in December and want to split a set of season tickets, with you getting games from Fall semester and me getting the ones from Spring semester, email me at gregorykoch2@yahoo.com and we can work something out.

Husky Sports Roundup, August 30th, 2011 (UPDATED 3:39 PM)

Husky Sports Roundup for today, August 30th, 2011. These will be posted on a near-daily basis, though they will cease for a few days when I have a medical surgery. As you all know, I have been having medical issues requiring me to take leave from UConn for a semester. If you want to know more, email me by clicking on that link. Do not use the contact link on this site because my school email may soon be temporarily disabled. Anyway, here's the update.

Women's Soccer: The game Friday at Wake Forest has been moved to 6:00 PM. We will still take on Virginia Tech on Sunday at 11:30 AM. Both games can be heard on WHUS.org and locally on 91.7  FM. Also, Riley Houle was named SoccerSavings.com New England Women's College Soccer Player of the Week. Houle scored her first career goal August 25th vs. Colgate.

Field Hockey: Justine Angelini was named Big East offensive player of the Week. She scored three goals and an assist in the 7-1 win vs. Hofstra. The award was given prior to yesterday's game vs. #20 Stanford.

Men's Soccer: UConn students interested in attending this Thursday's game vs. Michigan State at 7:30 PM should stop by the red tent outside the Co-op to pick up their free tickets. The Spartans are #19 in the country. Update 3:39 PM: The national polls came out today. UConn moved up three spots in the NSCAA poll from #8 to #5 and one spot in the Soccer America poll to #4. Michigan State dropped out of both polls, although the California Golden Bears, who we host Sunday night, are ranked #7 and #12 in NSCAA and Soccer America, respectively.

That's it for now. No games tonight or tomorrow. Football (vs. Fordham, ESPN3.com at 7:30 PM) and Men's Soccer (vs. Michigan State, WHUS.org/91.7 FM/Huskies All Access, 7:30 PM) are in action on Thursday.

I may post tomorrow if events warrant, but I will post on Thursday for sure. Go Huskies!

Husky Sports Roundup, August 29th, 2011

Below find my first Husky sports roundup, with news from today and previous days. I will see how often I post these. As news warrants, I guess.

Football: The season opens Thursday at the Rent vs. Fordham. The game will air on ESPN3.com but no TV broadcast. I may wind up live-blogging this game from my bedroom. Depends on how  whether my flooded downstairs is taken care of by then. (Thank you, Hurricane Irene). Stay tuned. Coach Paul Pasqualoni said at the press conference today that there will be three quarterbacks going in the game. Presumably this is Michael Nebrich, Johnny McEntee, and Scotty McCummings. I doubt he's referring to Driscoll, and Box is leaving the program. We've lost a lot of our offense and are ranked 6th in the Big East preseason poll. This will probably be a letdown after our BCS appearance. However, things could change. Our non-conference schedule is relatively weak, and if we go 4-1, we only need 2 conference wins to make a bowl. And most of our defense is returning, so I think we could go 7-5 or 8-4 this year. Or we could go 2-10. We'll see.

Men's soccer: Men's soccer beat St. Francis 2-0 on Saturday afternoon thanks to an own goal and a score from Carlos Alvarez. Next up is Michigan State Thursday at 7:30 PM. . This is a very good squad which could contend for the national title. Goalkeeper Josh Ford graduated, but we return Alvarez, as well as Mamadou Doudou Diouf and several other young players. And true freshman Andre Blake is great in goal. He may not be as good as Ford yet, but he will be better than Josh before he's done here.

Women's soccer: Women's soccer lost the season opener on August 19th to the other Huskies, from Northeastern. Final score 2-1 in spite of jumping out 1-0. But the Huskies came storming back against Colgate on the 25th, winning 3-0. A game against Central Connecticut State on Sunday was canceled because of rain. No makeup date has been announced. We snuck into the NCAA tournament last year after a good showing in the Big East Tournament and are looking to improve. Next up we travel to Winston-Salem for a weekend series. We will take on Wake Forest Friday night at 7:30 before playing Virginia Tech at 11:30 AM Sunday.

Women's volleyball: Women's volleyball was at the TCU Invitational in Fort Worth. We beat Grambling in the opener but lost two in a row to Texas Tech an the host Horned Frogs. Next up we are at home over Labor Day Weekend for the Toyota UConn classic, a three game, two-day round robin tournament featuring us, Holy Cross, Howard, and Binghamton. We are a long-shot to make the tournament this year.

Field Hockey: In the first game of the Husky Invitational Friday afternoon, the #4 nationally ranked team hammered Hofstra, 7-1. After the Pride took on Stanford on Saturday, we were supposed to face the Cardinal on Sunday. Due to Hurricane Irene, however, it was postponed until today. We won 4-2, thanks to goals by Anne Jeute, Justine Angelini, Ali Blankmeyer, and Chloe Hunnable. Next up, we face #8 Penn State on the road at noon Sunday. The Nittany Lions are fresh off a victory at #3 Virginia, and are looking for another huge victory. We would likely move up to #3 in the first regular season poll (to be released September 5th) if we win that one. We may even move up to #2 since #2 UNC has a tough game at home against #5 Syracuse, and if the Orange win, it may help us. Then again, it may help them leapfrog us. We'll see.

Stay tuned. Go Huskies!