UConn women's lacrosse off to best start since 2000

The UConn women’s lacrosse team (5-0) will face Binghamton (0-4) on Saturday.

The 5-0 start is the best for the Huskies since the 2000 season, and has earned UConn the No. 20 ranking in the nation.

UConn is coming off a 12-11 overtime win over Fairfield.

“We created a fairly good lead and Fairfield being a strong team, they didn’t roll over,” Coach Katie Woods said. “They kept fighting and we got tight under pressure and allowed them back into the game. Going into overtime we were able to focus and play together and gave us an opportunity to win the game.”

The overtime was the Huskies’ first this season and first since the 2010 season, which ended in the same result, a 12-11 win against Cincinnati.

“We’re in a situation right now where we are learning how to win and how to handle the pressure,” Woods said. “It was a good experience for us as a team.”

UConn was up 8-4 at the half, but surrendered seven goals to Fairfield in the second half to put it to overtime.

Senior midfielder Morgan O’Reilly scored the game winner in overtime for UConn.

Junior midfielder Lauren Kahn scored three goals in the game, and she was selected as Big East Offensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week.

“The biggest thing for her is that she’s become a really dangerous midfielder and a big threat for us all over the field; defensive plays, offensive plays and transition plays,” Woods said. “She’s a competitor and she’s willing to do whatever she has to do for the team.”

UConn is coming into the game against Binghamton defeating their last two opponents – New Hampshire and Fairfield – by slim margins.

Binghamton has dropped their first four games failing to score double digit points all but once in a double overtime 11-10 loss to Lehigh in their second game of the season. The Bearcats have also not allowed any opponent to score more than 13 points in any game so far this season.

“A key will be focusing on the basics and making sure that we take care of the ball in our transition game and have an intense level of communication – like playing with urgency, outworking and outhustling our opponent,” Woods said. “It will be a good test for us to play at our level and how we know how to play for the entire game. We have to make sure that we are in the moment in the game and not looking ahead or looking back and playing in the moment and have a lot of connection and support of each other.”

The Huskies have given up 12 points in the second half in their past two games while scoring only eight.

“The biggest thing for us is to play our game for 60 minutes and really stay keyed into each other and connected to each other on the field and play every defensive set from start to finish,” Woods said. “We need to stay connected throughout the field and make sure we take care of the ball after making a stop and put the ball in the back of the net on the other end of the field.”

UConn will face off with Binghamton at the George J. Sherman Sports Complex at 1 p.m. on Saturday.