Huskies Travel To Face Nation's Best

Lacrosse

By: Mike Northup

Posted: 3/30/07

Coming off last Friday's 18-16 double-overtime loss to Syracuse, the lacrosse team will try to get back to their winning ways this weekend. That will be no simple task for the team as they face arguably their toughest competition all year.

The Huskies (5-2, 0-1 Big East) take on No. 11 Notre Dame (7-2, 1-1) today in South Bend, Ind. Then, 7 p.m. Sunday the team will head to Evanston, Ill. to take on No. 1 Northwestern (5-1) at noon. Despite losing last Friday, the Huskies moved up to No. 19 in the IWLCA coaches' poll in the country.

At the very least, the loss to Syracuse last Friday showed that the Huskies can hang with some of the tougher competition in the country. The Huskies nearly squeaked out the win in front of a record crowd last Friday, leading until the Orange's Kristin Brady tied the game up with 27 seconds left in regulation. In the game, eight different Huskies tallied a goal, including Janet Williams, Whitney Michele and Katy Ryan, who each had three.

While no coach ever wants their team to lose, head coach Megan Cersosimo said that the Huskies came away from the match last Friday with a great deal of confidence.

"They finally did believe from the second that they took the field and they basically know now that they are a very good team and they can hang with the best of them," Cerosismo said. "So they walked away thinking 'we played well', but we need to close out a game and we should have beaten Syracuse."

Shannon Burke also extended her goal-scoring streak to 43 games in a row in the game, finishing with 2 goals and 4 assists on the day. Her 45 points this season leave her just 13 points shy of the UConn career record of 203, set by Tracy Mullaney from 2002 to 2005.

While Notre Dame and Northwestern may appear like an overwhelming task to tackle all in one weekend, Cersosimo believes that UConn has every ability to come out of the two tough games on top.

"I think it's the perfect time to hit them," Cersosimo said. "We've had plenty of time to rest after Syracuse and to pick apart our attack and defense to get it totally ready to go. I think [the players'] attitudes are right where they need to be. It's definitely not easy on them physically because we play Friday and then Sunday, but if any team can do it it's them."

Notre Dame is off to yet another solid start this season. The team's only losses came to Northwestern, (18-10) and No. 8 Syracuse (16-13). Most recently, the Fighting Irish are coming off an 11-1 thrashing of fellow Big East team Loyola. Other notable wins this year for the team include a 10-9 overtime win over No. 6 James Madison and a 9-7 victory over No. 16 Yale - the only other team the Huskies have lost to this season.

To be successful in tonight's game the Huskies will have to find a way to control the tenacious Notre Dame offense led by player-of-the-year candidate Caitlin McKinney. McKinney, who plays both midfield and attack, is leads the team with 40 points on a team-high tying 30 goals and 10 assists. Midfielder/Attacker Jillian Byers, also a player of the year candidate, has 30 goals to go along with 5 assists on the year. McKinney and Byers are just two of six Irish players with double-digit goal totals this year. Four of the last five wins for Notre Dame have come by a margin of 4 or more goals which puts extra pressure on the Huskies to keep pace with the high-octane Irish Offense.

The Notre Dame game is the first night game of the season and coach Cersosimo said the team is looking forward to playing under the lights of Notre Dame's Krause Stadium.

"I think every night game has the added benefit of excitement - you're playing at a different time, the lights are on and I just think it adds excitement," Cersosimo said.

Another interesting note about the game tonight is that UConn's own scoring machine, Burke (19 goals and 16 assists on the year), will be met by a Notre Dame defense containing none other than Shannon Burke. Notre Dame's Burke is second on the team this season with 12 caused turnovers.

After the Notre Dame match, the Huskies will have to focus their collective energies on finding a way to slow down a red-hot Wildcats team that hasn't lost since an opening-day 9-8 defeat at the hands of No. 2 North Carolina. Northwestern has absolutely crushed anybody and everybody they have faced since that first loss of the season. The Wildcats average margin of victory in their five victories this year is 12.4 goals per game. The defense has been nothing short of tenacious this year too, holding opponents to a mere 5.5 goals per game.

While Notre Dame's two Player of the Year candidates may have seemed like a lot, Northwestern tops that with an incredible four different candidates this season. Fittingly enough the candidates - Lindsay Finocchiaro, Merridith Frank, Ally Josephs, and Kristen Kjellman - represent both the offensive and defensive sides of the field. Finocchiaro has played a key role in the Wildcat defense, while Frank, Josephs, and Kjellman are among the top five scorers in a deeply-stacked offense that is averaging a whopping 15.67 goals per game.

The Huskies are approaching the challenges this weekend and beyond with the same high level of preparation and confidence, and will look to come out of the weekend with a 7-2 mark.

"We just continue to fine tune what we do well and address those few weaknesses we have," Cersosimo said. "That's basically what we did all week - hammer in the 7 on 7, which is both attack [and defense], and making them accountable for what they're doing. We're ready for this weekend."

Coming up after this weekend's games, the Huskies will travel to Piscataway, N.J. to face No. 18 Rutgers on April 7 at noon. The next home game for the Huskies will be April 11 against Boston College at 4 p.m.