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.

Men's Ice Hockey Schedule Released! (UPDATED X2)

Edit: This schedule appears to be incorrect and I have no idea how or why it was posted. The correct schedule is available here now. I will post more later tonight or tomorrow.


Edit 2: Please find the updated home schedule and notes below. As of 10:32 AM on July 7, there is no press release. All times are 7:05 PM except as noted.

Saturday, October 1, 2011: vs. Ryerson (exh) TBA
Friday, October 21, 2011: vs. Sacred Heart
Thursday, October 27, 2011: vs. Holy Cross
Saturday, October 29: vs. Army, TBA
Friday, December 2: vs. RIT
Saturday, December 3: vs. RIT
Friday, December 9: vs. Bentley
Thursday, December 29: Toyota UConn Hockey Classic vs. Army, 7:15 PM
Friday, December 30: Toyota UConn Hockey Classic vs. UMass Lowell or RPI, third place game will be at 4:00 PM, championship game at 7:15 PM
Friday, January 6: vs. Niagara
Saturday, January 7: vs. Niagara
Friday, January 20: vs. Robert Morris
Saturday, January 21: vs. Robert Morris
Friday, January 27: vs. Holy Cross
Friday, February 10: vs. Sacred Heart
Friday, February 17: vs. Bentley
Saturday, February 25: vs. American International

 

Notes:

• The October 21 game is the same date, time, and place as the women's game vs. Maine. I am verifying to see if this is an error or if one game will be played at a location other than Frietas Ice Forum. Any information would be helpful.


• Apparently there are no home games during the month of November. We have home games on October 29 and December 2 but none in between.


• The Ryerson exhibition is the same day as the football game vs. Western Michigan, however since times are not available for either yet, we can't say if there will be a conflict.


• The final game of the season against AIC is the same day as the Hockey East women's quarterfinals. Should we be hosting the latter, I don't know how the matter will be resolved.

 

Top 10 Games of 2010-11 #2: Women's Basketball vs. Baylor, November 16, 2010

This is game #2 on the list of Top 10 games I attended in 2010-11. It should have been posted yesterday but I was out of town for a wedding. So here it is. Expect game #1 to be posted next Monday as usual.

What: Women's Basketball vs. Baylor

When: Tuesday, November 16, 2011, 6:00 PM

Where: XL Center

Result: UConn 65 Baylor 64

This was my first game at XL Center, as my first few basketball games were all at Gampel. It was also the third women's basketball game I attended, and the second regular season one. The first two were both blowouts, but I knew better than to expect the same here.

Due to an overloaded and late-departing bus as well as rush hour traffic, I only arrived in the arena about 15 minutes before the game started, and had difficulty finding the student section. And then I couldn't see about half the court over the people in front of me and had to watch the game on the jumbotron.

But this was still an exciting game. Unfortunately, I neglected to make a post about it for some reason, though I did find it as #3 in the Top 10 games of Fall 2010 . This game was on the 24 hours of basketball marathon, one of ESPN's more interesting ideas. I'm just glad we weren't playing at 6 AM like Monmouth, although if it were at Gampel at that time I might have gone. Then again, probably not because I had 8 AM class on Tuesdays. Although the building was right next to the arena, but I doubt they'd let me bring my backback well whatever.

Back to the game. It was exciting throughout, with Baylor choosing not to foul at the end and ultimately getting the ball back down only by one but with only a few tenths of a second left. It didn't work, and we won 65-64. Very exciting game although it was the closest we've come to losing on our home court in quite some time.

That's all for now. Check back next Monday for game #1.

Top 10 Games of 2010-11 #3: Men's Basketball vs. Villanova, 1/17/11

Note: I was supposed to post this back in July, when I was doing my Top 10 games countdown. Unfortunately, it got stuck in my drafts and I never got around to posting it. So here it is, in its entirety, as it was written then, with a few notations.

My apologies for not posting this yesterday. This is game #3 on the Top 10 games I attended in 2010-11 list.

What: Men's Basketball vs. Villanova (original link)

When: Monday, January 17, 2011, 3:30 PM

Where: Gampel Pavillion, Storrs, CT

Result: Win 61-59

This was my first game of the Spring 2011 Semester. It was also Martin Luther King Day. Since 2002, I had always gone to a Knicks game with my family on MLK Day. This year, however, because the semester (should have) started the next day, I was back at UConn attending this game. It was nice - other than the soccer exhibition vs. Boston University over WOW Weekend, it was the only time I got to go to a game without worrying about schoolwork.

As for the game itself, it was close all along. Villanova tied it with 22 seconds to go and Kemba Walker hit a game winning shot with a second left to make it 61-59. And as for classes the next day, they were cancelled due to snow. They would be cancelled several more times over the next couple weeks. But this was the first game I attended Spring Semester.

Game #2 will likely be posted this Sunday as I will be in New Jersey on Monday for a wedding (my cousin ironically is getting married on Independence Day). Game #1 will be revealed July 11, after which I will likely not be reposting until August when I go back to school. (So much for that. If only...)

On a side note, the men's ice hockey schedule was released today. A post on that is upcoming. (Find that here)

Women's Ice Hockey Schedule Released!

The 2011-12 Women's Ice Hockey schedule was released today. You can find the press release here or the full schedule here. Here is a list of the home games for the Huskies, along with some notes below them.

Friday, September 23, 2011: vs. McGill (exh), 7:00 PM
Friday, September 30, 2011: vs. RPI, 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 1, 2011: vs. RPI, 3:00 PM
Friday, October 14, 2011: vs. Minnesota-Duluth, 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 15, 2011: vs. Minnesota-Duluth, 4:00 PM
Friday, October 21, 2011: vs. Maine, 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 22, 2011: vs. Maine, 2:00 PM
Saturday, November 5, 2011: vs. Northeastern, 4:00 PM
Saturday, November 12, 2011: vs. Providence, 1:00 PM
Sunday, November 20, 2011: vs. Vermont, 2:00 PM
Friday, November 25, 2011: Nutmeg Classic vs. Quinnipiac, 4:00 PM
Saturday, November 26, 2011: Nutmeg Classic vs. Robert Morris or Yale, time TBD
Tuesday, January 3, 2012: vs. Harvard, 7:00 PM
Saturday, January 7, 2012: vs. Brown, 1:00 PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2012: vs . Union NY, 7:00 PM
Sunday, January 22, 2012: vs. Boston College, 2:00 PM
Sunday, January 29, 2012: vs. Providence, 2:00 PM
Sunday, February 5, 2012: vs. New Hampshire, 2:00 PM
Saturday, February 11, 2012: vs. Boston College, 1:00 PM
Saturday, February 18, 2012: vs. Boston University, 2:00 PM

 

Notes:

• As mentioned before, if the homecoming football game vs. USF on October 15 is at noon, I could attend three UConn games that day. In addition to football, there will be the MN-Duluth game and soccer vs. Pittsburgh at 7:30


• It was reported earlier that women's basketball will once again be hosting the Worldvision Challenge over Thanksgiving Weekend. Times are still TBD but if they were what they were last year, I probably won't attend the Nutmeg Classic.


• Harvard, Brown, and Union are all over Winter Break, so I obviously won't be at those games.


• RPI on October 1 will likely conflict with the football game vs. Western Michigan, as if the game starts at noon, its end will conflict with the hockey beginning, if it starts at 3:30 the whole thing will conflict, and if it's a night game I would need to leave hockey early to get to Rentschler.


• Maine on October 22nd is the same day as men's soccer vs. Georgetown, but the latter is at 7:30 PM, so no issue.

Hopefully men's ice hockey is announced soon. Until then, Go Huskies!

Men's Soccer Schedule Released

The UConn Huskies 2011 Men's Soccer Schedule was released today. With this, all fall sports which I follow have released their schedule. Men's and women's ice hockey generally release their schedules around this time too since the season starts in early October but they have not yet. In any case, you can view the full release here or the full schedule here. Below, please find the home schedule and some notes.

Sunday, August 14: exh. vs NJIT, 7:30 PM
Saturday, August 20: exhibition vs. Stony Brook, 7:30 PM
Saturday, August 27: vs. St. Francis (NY), 7:30 PM
Thursday, September 1: vs. Michigan State, 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 4: vs. California, 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 24: vs. St. John's, 7:30 PM
Tuesday, September 27: vs. Yale, 7:30 PM
Tuesday, October 4: vs. Manhattan, 7:30 PM
Wednesday, October 12: vs. Providence, 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 15: vs. Pittsburgh, 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 22: vs. Georgetown, 7:30 PM
Wednesday, October 26: vs. Marquette, 7:30 PM

Notes:

• I do not know yet if Goal Patrol will be planning a trip to another away game. It will be trickier this year because there is not an away game which is that close to Storrs and on a weekend. Last year's trip to St. John's was, according to google maps, two hours and 40 minutes. To get to Boston for the game against Boston University would be about an hour shorter, but that game is on a Friday night (September 16) not a Saturday, and is also the night of a nationally televised football game. Weekend road games against Louisville and Notre Dame the first two Saturdays in October are almost certainly not feasible. And our only other road game on a Saturday is at Seton Hall on October 29. Google Maps says it is roughly three hours from Storrs to South Orange (two hours and 59 minutes to be exact) which isn't much longer than the St. John's game. So that may be the most likely candidate. We'll see.


• With Women's Ice Hockey vs. Minnesota-Duluth also scheduled for October 15th (see this post) as well as a football game vs. USF with time TBD, this could be a three-game day thus being the first time I ever attended three UConn games in one day.


• The game against Michigan State is the same day as the football opener vs. Fordham. I unfortunately have a 9:00 AM class on Fridays so I don't particularly want to just get back to campus at midnight. And if the football game starts at 8 PM it won't end until after 11:00. If it starts at 7 PM I might attend that instead of soccer, although since football will likely be a blowout, I may not. Ideally I'd like to attend football, but I also want to get up for class the next day. I'll decide that later.

Stay posted for more information. Also, game #4 in my Top 10 games of 2010-11 will be posted on Monday.

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