University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies End Regular Season At Morrone
10/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 22, 2009
STORRS, Conn. - Following a 1-1 weekend against then-No. 7/8 Notre Dame and DePaul, the University of Connecticut women's soccer team will finish off their regular season at home. First the Huskies will take on West Virginia on Cox TV, Friday at 7 p.m. followed by their regular season finale on Sunday against Pittsburgh at 1 p.m.
The television game against West Virginia will be tape delayed and show Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Sunday will be Senior Day at UConn where the Huskies will honor their five graduating seniors. FOLLOW THE GAME: Gametracker and streaming video is available through UConnHuskies.com.
CELEBRATING THE SENIORS: Before the game against Pittsburgh on Sunday, the University of Connecticut will honor its five seniors on the women's soccer team in a pregame ceremony.
Redshirt seniors Jessica Diakun and Brittany Taylor and seniors Lauren Ebert, Brianna Gray and Annie Yi will all be recognized for their achievements on the field as a Husky. They will be accompanied by their parents.
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA: The Mountaineers are 7-5-5 overall, 4-3-2 in the BIG EAST coming into their final two regular season games this weekend. West Virginia has had its ups and downs this season but has been strong in its last five games succumbing to just two teams (Notre Dame and Georgetown) in the month of October.
The Mountaineers started their year off with a 3-3-4 record in their first 10 games. They have racked up the minutes playing in seven overtime games this season, but have been unable to get a win in any of them finishing with an 0-2-5 record.
During the month of October, WVU recorded four shutouts against their BIG EAST opponents.
SERIES HISTORY: UConn has been very successful against West Virginia in season's past. The Huskies boast an 11-2-2 overall record against the Mountaineers with the two losses coming in the BIG EAST semifinal game in 2001 and in regular season play in 2003.
Since 2003, UConn has gone 4-0-2 against WVU with the final two games of this series ending in ties, both coming in 2008. UConn used a 4-2 score in penalty kicks to knock West Virginia out of the BIG EAST Tournament last season.
SCOUTING PITTSBURGH: The Panthers have improved a lot since last season and enter this game with a 7-4-5 record, 2-2-5 in BIG EAST play.
Pitt begain the season with a four-game win streak before falling on the road at Drexel and Penn. They pulled off a tie at West Virginia which began them on a six-game undefeated streak where they went 2-0-4 with victories over St. Bonaventure and DePaul.
The Panthers surprised the Fighting Irish when they shut them out at home pulling off a 0-0 tie to the top-10 ranked team.
Most recently, Pitt has recorded a 1-2-1 record in their last four games. They have tallied a school record nine shutouts this season, four of them coming in the form of a 0-0 tie.
SERIES HISTORY: UConn is undefeated against Pittsburgh since they met for the first time in BIG EAST play in 1997. UConn is currently 10-0-0 against Pitt and has shut out the Panthers in eight of the 10 matches outscoring them 33-3.
LAST TIME OUT: The Huskies went 1-1 on the weekend dropping a 6-1 decision to No. 7/8 Notre Dame on Friday night and defeating DePaul 2-1 on Sunday. Linda Ruutu recorded a goal in each of the games on the weekend.
Notre Dame went out to a 3-0 lead on Friday before Ruutu put the only Husky goal on the board in the 67th minute. Eventually the Fighting Irish won the game 6-1.
On Sunday, the Huskies luck changed for the better against DePaul. Ruutu knocked in the first goal of the game giving the Huskies a 1-0 advantage in the 58th minute. Meghan Cunningham added to that lead in the 81st minute on a penalty kick notching the eventual game winner for the Huskies. UConn was 24 seconds away from their sixth shutout of the season before Tara Strickland knocked in a goal for the Blue Demons in the final minute of play.
ONE AWAY FROM 500: Currently, the UConn women's soccer program has racked up 499 wins since the team was founded in 1979. The program has an outstanding win percentage (74.9%) losing just 153 games in 31 years.
Out of the 499 victories, 283 have come at home, 161 have come on the road and 55 have happened at neutral sites.
As the head coach of the Huskies for the past 29 years, Len Tsantiris has seen his fair share of victories.
Tsantiris currently has a 473-143-41 record at UConn and a 104-19-7 BIG EAST record. His 100th BIG EAST win came at Providence on Sept. 18.
ON THE TUBE: This weekend's game against West Virginia is the only game during the regular season that the Huskies will have on television this season. The game will be recorded by Cox Television and played on Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in its entirety.
GOAL SCORING: The Huskies have outscored their opponents this season 30-22. The number of goals scored thus far into this season is more than double the number the Huskies scored during 2008 when they were outscored 19-13, 16 games into the season.
SPREADING THE LOVE: Eleven different Huskies have recorded a goal this season out of the 30 goals scored. Seven of those 11 have had multi-goal efforts on the season.
The goal total: Ruutu (8), Busque (6), Cunningham (3), Shufelt (3), Clark (2), Fugowski (2), Giddings (2), Dakin (1), Diakun (1), Ebert (1), Garufi (1).
CLARK ON A ROLL: Erin Clark has been on a roll in the Huskies' victories. The junior forward recorded a point in five-straight UConn victories from Sept 13-Oct 2. She is the first Huskies to do so since Meghan Schnur. Schnur recorded a point in six straight victories at the beginning of the 2007 season.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION: Ruutu and sophomore Melissa Busque have been able to find each other on six of the Huskies 30 goals. The sophomore forward has recorded an assist on four of her freshman counterpart's goals.
Ruutu helped out Busque for the first time of the season in a crucial overtime goal to give the Huskies the win over Boston University and again at Marquette on Oct. 9 to record the second goal of the game.
Busque is a native of Quebec while Ruutu comes to the Huskies from Finland.
The two also amongst the team leaders in goals scored in 2009. Both Ruutu and Busque have recorded six goals in 2009.
STRONG HUSKY D: The defenders on the women's soccer team are some of the strongest in the BIG EAST. Led by seniors Brittany Taylor and Lauren Ebert and accompanied by Kacey Richards and freshman Danielle Dakin, the UConn defensive line has let up just 22 goals this season in 16 games, 14 of those goals coming in conference play.
The D has contributed on the offensive side of things as Dakin and Ebert have both recorded a goal on the year, Ebert also has tallied an assist, and Taylor has five assists to her credit this season.
HUSKIES IN THE RANKINGS: The Huskies jumped back into the NSCAA rankings during the week of Oct. 4 after their 2-0 performance on the weekend. UConn is now #24 in the country in the NSCAA poll and 13 in the Soccer America Poll. In the NSCAA Northeast Regional poll, the Huskies received their highest ranking of 3 this week behind Notre Dame and Rutgers.
During the week of Sept. 21, for the first time in the 2009 season, the University of Connecticut women's soccer team was ranked in three polls. The Huskies were ranked 25th in the NSCAA poll, 23rd in Soccer Times, and 16th in SoccerAmerica's Top-25.
The Huskies began the year ranked No. 21 in the Soccer America poll but fell out after dropping their first two games of the year to BYU and then No. 8 Penn State. Slowly but surely, the Huskies have been clawing their way back into the polls.
GIDDINGS GETS THE GOALS (AND AWARDS): After her two goal performance against Wake Forest on September 13, England native Georgina Giddings received numerous awards for her efforts. The two goals that Giddings scored in the game tied the amount of goals that Wake Forest had let up in their first seven games.
Giddings was named to TopDrawerSoccer's national team of the week as well as CS360's Primetime Players of the Week.
TOP TEAMS: In the seven games the Huskies have played this season (including the exhibition against Boston College) they have already faced off against three- top-25 teams (BC, Penn State and Wake Forest) and against a team that dropped out of the polls right before playing the Huskies (BYU).
HUSKIES IN THE RPI: UConn has played some tough teams in 2009, pulling out huge wins over the likes of No. 8 Wake Forest.
Because of this, they have one of the highest RPI's in Division I Women's Soccer ranking 11th in the nation. They are the highest ranked BIG EAST school followed by Notre Dame in the 23rd spot.
BIG EAST AWARDS
RUUTU IS THE ROOKIE OF THE WEEK (AGAIN): After her two goal effort against Villanova and Georgetown, freshman Linda Ruutu was named the BIG EAST Rookie of the week for the first time in her career.
Her two-goal effort against No. 7/8 Notre Dame and DePaul landed her Rookie of the Week status for the second time this season and the second time in the past three weeks.
Ruutu scored the lone goal of the game for the Huskies against Notre Dame. At DePaul, the rookie scored the first goal of the game to give the Huskies their first lead in over 182 minutes. Her goal proved to be beneficial in helping the Huskies end their three-game skid.
TAYLOR BACK ON TRACK: After helping the Huskies to a pair of shutouts during the weekend of Sept. 18 and 20, Brittany Taylor was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week.
It was the second time in her career that Taylor earned the weekly honors, the other time coming in 2007 when she was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year.
Taylor was also awarded the ECAC Co-Defensive Player of the Week award for her efforts.
KEEPER OF THE WEEK: After shutting out Boston University for her first career shut out, tying her career high in saves (10) against No. 8 Wake Forest and going 2-0 in the process, keeper Jess Dulski was named the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week.
Dulski was the first Husky to earn Goalkeeper of the week honors since Oct. 16, 2006 when Stephanie Labbe was honored.
HONOR ROLL HONORS
Three Huskies have been named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll this season:
Linda Ruutu - Sept. 14
Jessica Shufelt - Sept. 28
Melissa Busque - Oct. 4
MEDIA INFORMATION:
RADIO - UConn's campus radio station WHUS (91.7 FM) has broadcast all of the Husky women's soccer home games during the regular season, as well as selected road contests... WHUS' broadcasts can be heard live on the Internet at WHUS.org and will be linked to UConnHuskies.com.
E-MAIL - To receive updated on UConn Soccer, e-mail Betsy Devine at elizabeth.devine@uconn.edu with the message "Women's Soccer E-mail" as the subject.
WEB - Please visit UConnHuskies.com for up-to-date stories, stats, schedules and results, and other UConn athletic department information ... Gametracker is available for the majority of women's soccer games, linked from the front page of UConn's athletic Web site.
ON THE TUBE: The Huskies have just one game on tv this season as Cox TV will broadcast the West Virginia game on 10/23.
