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!

What's in Store for this Semester

Since I am taking medical leave this semester and cannot attend any UConn games on campus, here is a look on what is in store. This could change at any time though.

• A commentary on UConn sports and on college sports in general.


• Possible daily, semi-daily, or weekly updates on ALL UConn sports, not just the major ones.


• Updates on how I personally am doing, medically and otherwise.


• Also, I may have exciting participation news to announce soon. If it becomes official, you will hear it here.

Go Huskies!

Checking in From Home

As you may know by now, I am home this semester with medical issues. I don't want to explain too much in a public post, but if you want to know how I'm doing, just email me and I'll give you a summary.

In any case, I've been following my Huskies online. I watched yesterday's men's soccer game on Huskies All-Access and got to see us win 2-0. I also watched the preseason game vs. Stony Brook and the two games the women have played so far.

Yes, watching these games make me wish I was on campus even more than I already do. But they also help me cope with the fact that I can't be on campus. The fact is, even when I'm only home for breaks, when I watch UConn games I wish I could be there. When our women's hoops team got win #89 last December 21, do you seriously think I didn't wish I was at XL Center watching it? Of course I did. But it was nice being able to watch my Huskies, just as it is now.

And let's put it this way. During our soccer team's NCAA tournament loss to Brown last November, I was a bit bummed that I couldn't be there due to Thanksgiving Break. But I was looking forward to watching the websteram of our NCAA tournament contest. But then the power went out on campus, and the webstream wasn't available. The webstream of the audio also wasn't available from WHUS.org, though I believe they were still broadcasting over the airwaves.

In any event, I will be sad to be at home for this coming semester. But I should find some consolation with Huskies All-Access and with WHUS.org. And when the latter simulcasts with the former, that's even better. I'll be posting here occasionally, to comment on how I'm doing or how the Huskies are doiong, or perhaps both. And come January 15th, I'll be back on campus. It looks like the women's basketball game vs. UNC on January 16th will be my first game back. One of two things could change this. Either the game could be in Hartford with no buses, or the men could play a home game at Gampel on Sunday the 15th. The women's ice hockey team doesn't play on Sunday following two games on the road at New Hampshire Friday and Saturday. The men will be in Buffalo to face Canisius. Even if women's hoops is at XL with no buses (we should know for sure next month) the latest my first game back could possibly be is Friday, January 20 when our men's ice hockey team hosts Robert Morris at 7:05. There may be men's and/or women's Big East games before that though.

I'll keep you posted. Go Huskies!

Medical Issues - Taking a Break

I have been having some medical issues which I may talk about more at a later date. In any case, I will require hospitilization and surgery and will miss the fall semester at UConn due to a medical leave of absence. Needless to say, I will not be attending any UConn games until Spring 2012 semester. It appears that my first game back will be women's hoops vs. UNC on the 16th (Monday) but that's not for sure yet. If it's at XL and there's no bus, it won't happen, and there could be a men's game first. I will be watching my Huskies on line (with WHUS.org and Huskis All Access on uconnhuskies.com plus possibly Husky HoopStreams and an Atlantic Hockey subscription) but it's not the same as going to games. But my health comes first, and it is what it is. I'll be back in the spring, and I just want this health stuff to be over. Those who know me personally, I'll contact you and let you know what's going on. Those who just read this blog for fun, believe me, I'd rather be at school now.

Top 10 Games I Attended in 2010-11 #1: Football vs. West Virginia, October 29th, 2010

Sorry for the delay in posting this. I've been having some personal issues. But here it is, right now. By the way, for those of you wondering why the Big East and NCAA Tournaments aren't on here, the answer is simple - I wasn't at those games. Also, look at the bottom for an in-depth analysis of this list.

What: Football vs. West Virginia (original post)

When: October 29, 2010

Where: Rentschler Field

Result: Win 16-13, OT

What a game! This completely turned our season around. We came back from being down 10-0 just before halftime (at which point Teggart made a field goal) to win  16-13 in overtime. It wasn't as much due to our good play as because West Virginia kept fumbling, but I'll take it. It was the first time we beat them, ever. And after that, it launched a five game win streak that took us to our first BCS game.

This was probably the most exciting football game I've ever watched. It didn't seem that way for most of the first half though, when we couldn't score. Finally, Dave Teggart made that field goal just before the half to make it 10-3. It JUST made it inside the crossbar. I've read The Garden of Forking Paths and I wonder how we would have been different if that kick had gone wide. We wouldn't have the momentum heading into the second half, and in all likelihood, we wouldn't win the game. We wouldn't take momentum into the Pitt game and win, and could very well go 3-9. Maryland wouldn't hire Randy Edsall, but of course, he could get fired. And Pasqualoni might not have taken the job. Who knows? And if years down the road, we are an elite football program, this could have been the crucial moment in that. We will just have to see.

I'll probably post sporadically until the beginning of next season, which is just over a month away. Until then, Go Huskies!

Analysis:

Let's review the Top 10 first:

10. Men's Soccer vs. Boston University, August 28 (first game I attended)

9. Baseball vs. Holy Cross, March 22 (first baseball game, 16-inning contest)

8. Field Hockey Big East Semifinal vs. Louisville, November 6

7. Men's Soccer Big East First Round vs. DePaul, November 5

6. Men's Basketball vs. Stony Brook, November 12 (first regular-season game I attended)

5. Men's Ice Hockey vs. Sacred Heart @ Rentschler Field, February 13 (outdoor game as part of Whalers Hockey Fest)

4. Baseball Doubleheader vs. St. John's, April 2 (possible turning point of our season)

3. Men's Basketball vs. Villanova, January 17 (first game back from winter break, Kemba Walker hits game winning shot with 1 second left)

2. Women's Basketball vs. Baylor, November 16

1. Football vs. West Virginia, October 29 (see above)

 

Note that two of these were the first game I attended in a sport (including one which was the first game I attended in any sport) and a third was the first regular season game I attended in that sport (I had attended an exhibition game vs. American International). A fourth was the first game I attended after Winter Break, and it had been over a month since I'd attended one. Three more could be classified as "special" games - two Big East Tournament games and Whalers Hockey Fest. Two more are turning point games - West Virginia football and St. John's baseball. And the women's hoops game vs. Baylor was the first major contest I'd attended in women's basketball, after we clobbered Franklin Pierce and Holy Cross.

Well, that's all for now. Go Huskies!

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.