The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Dan Gindraux Katy Ryan, who has 22 goals on the year, has been a bright spot in UConn's difficult season.

Whether they are home or away, the UConn lacrosse team has struggled this season.

After suffering close defeats in their past two games against Rutgers and Fairfield, the Huskies (1-11) leave Storrs today and travel to Westwood, Mass., where they will try to notch their second victory of the season against another struggling team, Boston College (3-7) when they face off at 6 p.m.

This starts the last road trip of the season and the last time this year's seniors will play away from home. Head coach Megan Cersosimo said this does not change her team's approach to the match against the Eagles though.

"This being the last road trip doesn't change anything," Cersosimo said. "We still need to go out there and play a team game in order to win."

Like UConn, the Eagles have struggled the season and have been unable to win consecutive matches. Their last win came on March 29 in a double overtime defeat of North Carolina. In their last outing though, the Golden Eagles were routed by No. 4 Virginia, losing by a final score of 12-4.

For the Huskies, this season has also had its ups and downs.

UConn earned its first victory against UC-Davis on March 30. Since then though, the Huskies have lost to Fairfield and Rutgers. Despite this, the defense has shown some improvement. In their games against the Stags and Scarlet Knights, the Huskies had fewer turnovers and stayed close up until halftime. In the Fairfield game, UConn even had a 9-7 lead at intermission.

"We played aggressive," head coach Megan Cersosimo said. "We learned in that game that strong midfield play keeps you in the game."

The second half is where the Huskies have run into trouble though. In the second halves of the last two games, UConn has been outscored 16-6 and outshot 26-17.

Coach Cersosimo believes the solution for this problem is simple - teamwork.

"We can't just have a couple of players step up if we hope to beat BC," Cersosimo said. "The entire team is going to have to step up."

Glimpses of this were seen in UConn's last two games. This year, juniors Whitney Michele, Katy Ryan and Kim McGinty, as well as senior Robyn Pastuch have accounted for 84 of UConn's 111 goals on the season.

Against Rutgers and Fairfield however, with teams beginning to focus on shutting down Michele, UConn's leading scorer, some of the younger Huskies have taken some of the offensive responsibility.

Against the Scarlet Knights, freshman Lauren Gunning scored her second goal of the season, while in the match against Fairfield, freshmen Jillian Cerar and Megan Bohns each found the net.

With these freshmen having three more years at Storrs to look forward to, Cersosimo said it is still important to constantly learn from past mistakes and try to win, even with the team's record being 1-11.

"We should always be working to get better," Cersosimo said. "You learn from losing as well as winning. Hopefully we are learning from our mistakes so we won't make them again next year."



Contact Dennis Rizzo

at Dennis.Rizzo@UConn.edu.

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