Huskies victorious over Friars to earn 12th Big East Title

The No. 3 ranked University of Connecticut men’s soccer team captured their 12th Big East regular season title Saturday night after defeating Providence College 2-0.

In front of a sold out crowd of 5,100 at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium, UConn took the lead midway through the first half through Senior Captain Carlos Alvarez and never looked back.

Alvarez earned a penalty kick in the 27th minute, stepping up and taking the spot kick himself. He fired low and hard to his left, but was denied by Providence keeper, Keasel Broome. Broome was unable to keep hold of the penalty kick and Alvarez slotted the rebound into the net for a 1-0 lead. UConn added a second goal in the second half when Sean Weir and Colin Bradley combined to set up Mamadou Doudou Diouf, who shot low with his left foot scoring his 12th goal of the season.

Head Coach Ray Reid was pleased with the team’s professional performance in securing the Big East championship.

“This is a great win for the guys, for the program, and for the school. The guys came out focused and did a great job. They were very focused all day, they rose to the challenge and really earned this today,” said Reid.

With the win, UConn earned a share of the Big East regular season title with No. 6 ranked Georgetown. Both teams finished the season with a 6-2-0 record in Big East conference play. UConn also earned a #1 seed and a bye into the quarterfinals for the Big East Conference Tournament. In their quarterfinal, UConn will face the winner of the Villanova vs. Seton Hall play in match.

Match winner Carlos Alvarez, who was recently named a finalist for The Senior CLASS Award, talked about winning the Big East being just one of many goals for the team.

“It’s another piece to the puzzle,” said Alvarez. “This was step one on our goal sheet for the season, we have two more to go. This feels great, but we want the big one. After feeling like we could have won everything a year ago and before, it’s great to win this.”

The 2012 Big East regular season champion University of Connecticut men’s soccer team must now wait until Saturday November 3rd to face either Villanova or Seton Hall at home in a Big East Conference Quarterfinal with the winner moving on to Red Bull Arena playing in the Big East Conference Semi Final on November 9th.