UConn Men's Soccer seek revenge against Seton Hall

After an eight-day hiatus, the No. 4 UConn Huskies will be back on the pitch tonight at 7 p.m. as they host the Seton Hall Pirates at Morrone Stadium.

The Huskies improved to 11-1-1, 3-1-0 in the Big East after a 2-0 victory over Iona on Sept. 9. UConn is currently tied with Marquette atop the Big East Blue Division; the Golden Eagles own the tiebreaker because of a 3-2 win over Connecticut on Oct. 6. Ray Reid’s Huskies are second in the latest NCAA Men’s Soccer RPI behind No. 1 Maryland.

First-year Head Coach Gerson Echeverry’s Seton Hall team is on the outside looking in, but is searching for that signature win that could improve its NCAA Tournament chances. An upset win tonight would be the Huskies first regular season home loss since November 7, 2009. The Pirates are 2-2-0 in the conference and 6-7-0 overall, that places them fifth in the Big East Blue Division and 101 in the RPI.

Seton Hall has dropped two straight, a 1-0 loss to NJIT and a 6-1 drudging at home by No. 7 Notre Dame. The Pirates and Huskies are no strangers. The programs have met 29 times since 1987 and have split the games evenly at 13-13-3. Last season, Seton Hall spoiled UConn’s chances of a conference title in the regular season finale. Kai Greene’s goal in the 20th minute was the difference and the Huskie could not convert on 11 second half shots as UConn lost its last regular season game for the second consecutive year. Seton Hall has not won in Storrs since 1998.

Juniors Max Garcia and George Velasquez have combined for 10 of the Seton Hall’s 17 goals this season. So far Garcia has taken an overwhelming 41 shots, meanwhile no one else on the team has attempted over 19 shots. Velasquez has notched 10 points in four conference games, the second most this season behind Notre Dame’s Ryan Findley.

Seton has yet to find any consistency in net as Michael Kuzan and Kevin Bonder have allowed a combined 28 goals and have only managed to stop 71.7% of shots on goal.

UConn sophomore goalkeeper Andre Blake has only allowed seven goals and posted a conference-best .53 goals against average. He is not on pace for 15 shutouts like last season but he has still recorded a league-best eight shutouts.

Junior Mamadou Doudou Diouf leads the team with nine goals followed by sophomore Allando Matheson, who has seven goals including four game-winning goals off the bench. Carlos Alvarez has put together a fine senior season in the Connecticut midfield, he has notched five goals and six assists. Alvarez led the Big East in assists with 11 in his freshman season and 14 as a sophomore.

Tonight’s game can be heard on WHUS at 91.7 FM and followed through a live web stream on UConnHuskies.com