Winning start on the line for UConn lacrosse

The UConn women’s lacrosse team will take their 4-0 record, their best start since 2005, into Fairfield this Saturday.

The Huskies are coming off an 11-9 victory over the University of New Hampshire in their home opener this past Wednesday.

“The players that we had on the field had the confidence that they were able to secure the win,” head coach Katie Woods said. “We made it a little dicey for ourselves throughout the game by not executing the easy things like passing and catching, but we were able to gut it out.”

The Huskies led 10-5 in the second half before allowing the Wildcats to cut the lead to within one. UConn freshman Ally Fazio knocked in the dagger with 2:36 left in the game to put UConn ahead for good, 11-9.

UConn was able to put 28 shots on goal, to UNH’s 22.

“We’ve been working on reading the defenders and what the defense is giving and taking away from us, and we have a lot of different looks and different attackers with different strengths,” Woods said. “With registering 28 shots, we need to put more of them away.”

The Huskies will face a 3-3 Fairfield team, with victories over Sacred Heart, Holy Cross, and Monmouth.

In each game the Stag’s have won they have scored more than 10 goals, while in each game they have lost they have scored eight goals or less.

“Right now our focus with Fairfield coming off of a strong win, our focus is us,” Woods said. “We got a little too close with New Hampshire with not taking care of the basics: protecting our sticks, our passes, taking the ball away when it matters, and we’ve been focusing on making ourselves ready to compete for 60 minutes on Saturday.”

UConn has 14 different players who have registered at least two points so far this season.

“We have a lot of different threats all over the field and it allows us to mix things up a little bit and if the team is trying to take away one look and we find another then we can take advantage of what the defense is giving us,” Woods said.

The Huskies are 6-4 all time vs. Fairfield, and won their previous meeting in 2012, 13-10. UConn allowed the first goal of the game, but never trailed for the remainder of the contest.

“Our hustle plays will be very important,” Woods said. “Getting the draw controls and making sure that if the ball goes down on our defensive end that we come off of it. If our defense can anchor us on Saturday and we take care of the hustle plays it could be a good day for us.”

The Huskies will take an hour and a half trip in state and take the field in Fairfield at noon on Saturday.