The No. 7 UConn field hockey team goes head-to-head with No. 6 Syracuse this Saturday in what should be the biggest Big East match-up of the year.
The two teams are both 3-0 in the conference and, as a result, first and second place. Currently, UConn holds an overall 14-1 record while Syracuse is 13-1. No. 4 Princeton, is the only team to have beaten both teams. Therefore Saturday's game is likely to have a crucial impact on who finishes first in the conference.
"In the minds of many people the winner of this came could claim the conference title," head coach Nancy Stevens, said.
Syracuse is coming off of a six-game stretch of home-game wins. Notable wins include: Providence, UMass and Albany, who are all top-20 teams.
"Being the home team should give us a slight advantage but not a tremendous one. Ironically last year we won at Syracuse and they won here," said Stevens.
After reviewing game tapes of Syracuse this year Stevens said, "Syracuse likes to put a lot of people around the ball. Since we can move the ball well throughout the field, our goal is to stretch the field."
Syracuse junior Lindsey Conrad leads the Orange with 12 goals and 31 points. Conrad was named Big East Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 28 after collecting nine points. Syracuse sophomore Heather Susek is another offensive leader. She ranks second on the team in points and has made the Big East weekly honor roll.
Freshman goalie Leann Stiver has performed tremendously with the Orange in her inaugural season. Stiver has achieved a GAA of 1.13 and a save percentage of .789. In the same week that Loren Sherer was named Big East Offensive Player for the fifth time, Stiver was simultaneously named Big East Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Stiver has played in all but one of Syracuse's victories over ranked teams. The Orange's total of seven victories over ranked teams led all of Division I as of Oct. 5.
In UConn's last match-up on Wednesday, UConn shut out Northeastern, 5-0. Sherer and Cara Silverman racked up two goals apiece and Melissa Gonzalez scored the final goal. Andrea Mainiero collected her sixth shutout of the season and her second in the past three games. Sherer now has 23 goals on the season, 11 more than Silverman who has scored the second most for UConn. Gonzalez was the named the Big East Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. She was named the Big East Offensive Player of the Week last season.
Don't miss this key match up in all of Division-I field hockey. In the words of Stevens, "Be sure to bring your umbrella."
The final top-10 match up of the regular season will commence at 12 p.m. at the George Sherman Sports Complex.
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