University of Connecticut Athletics
Shipping Off To Boston!
11/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Nov. 12, 2009
Click to find directions to the Newton Campus Soccer Complex
STORRS, Conn. - The University of Connecticut women's soccer team returns to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus making their 27th appearance in the 28 years of the tournament. The Huskies will take on Boston University at Boston College on Friday, November 13 at 7 p.m.
UConn's 27 years in the tournament is No. 2 among all Division I women's soccer teams just behind North Carolina who has played in an NCAA Tournament Game for 28-straight seasons.
The Huskies will face off against the Boston University Terriers who earned an automatic berth to the tournament after winning their third-straight America East Championship last weekend. The Terriers are 14-5-2 on the season and have won 12 of their last 13 contests including five-straight.
The Huskies started off the season dropping a couple of games to top ranked teams before they won nine of their next 10 games including a six-game win streak with a victory over then-No. 8 Wake Forest.
At the end of the season, UConn had a few setbacks as were on the road during three of their four last weeks before the tournament. During that time the Huskies registered a 1-4-2 record drawing their only win at DePaul while tying West Virginia and Villanova.
The Huskies appeared in the First Round of the BIG EAST Tournament for the first time in their history and was knocked out for the first time in penalty kicks earning a 1-1 tie at Villanova.
Freshman Linda Ruutu (Espoo, Finland) leads the Huskies with eight goals scored and four assists for 20 points. She has played and started in all 19 games on the season. Following right behind Ruutu is sophomore Melissa Busque (St. Bruno, Quebec) who has recorded six goals and six assists on the season for 18 total points. Busque leads the team in shots taken with 63, and has also played in all 19 games on the season missing just one start on senior day.
Boston University had totaled 43 goals on the season and is led by Farrell McClernon and Jessica Luscinski who each have registered 20 points, but 13 Terriers have scored on the season and nine have scored multiple goals.
FOLLOW THE GAME: The game can be followed via NCAA.com and can be heard in its entirety on WHUS.org.
SCOUTING BOSTON UNIVERSITY: The Terriers finished the year at 14-5-2 and have won 12 of their last 13 games including the 4-0 conference championship game over Binghamton.
The Terriers began the year with a couple of victories over Atlantic 10 opponents Rhode Island and Massachusetts before suffering their first loss of the season at cross-town rival and then-No. 16 Boston College. The Terriers got a couple of ties against Loyola (Md.) and then-No. 7 West Virginia before starting on their longest losing streak of the season.
The Terriers fell to UConn in their first game of the UConn Classic, 1-0 in the rain in overtime. They dropped their next meeting to then-No. 23 Penn State followed by a 1-0 loss to Northeastern.
But after that streak, the Terriers went on a tear winning their next seven games falling to Stony Brook 2-1 before winning another five games, and two in the America East Championship.
SERIES HISTORY: Overall, UConn leads the series 3-2 after their 1-0 win this season. The Huskies have already met with Boston University once this season during the UConn Classic on Friday, September 11. UConn and BU battled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, but the Huskies took the 1-0 win in overtime helping to extend their eventual six game win-streak to three games at the time.
The last four meetings between the two teams have been decided by a 1-0 score, two of them coming in overtime.
POSTSEASON MEETINGS: The Huskies and the Terriers are no stranger to each other in post season play. Two of their five meetings have come in the NCAA tournament. The two teams have a split record (1-1) as UConn won the first meeting 1-0 and the Terriers won the second meeting 1-0 in double overtime.
LAST TIME OUT: UConn has not played a game in over two weeks. The Huskies tied Villanova 1-1 in the First Round of the BIG EAST Tournament falling 4-1 in penalty kicks after battling for 100 minutes. Their game against Boston University on Friday will be the first in two weeks.
UConn allowed Villanova to score just 26 seconds into the game when, after the opening kick, Villanova drove down the field. Due to the muddy field conditions, a UConn defender slipped down which let Villanova's leading scorer flick a shot past a diving Jessica Dulski (Pittsford, N.Y.) to give them an early 1-0 lead.
The score remained the same until the second half when, after a flurry in front of the net, the Huskies put pressure on the Wildcat defense and in turn made them record an own goal to tie the game up at one-apiece with 13:26 remaining in the game. This is the first time this season that the Huskies have recorded a goal via the own goal.
Dulski had to come out of the game with 36.3 seconds remaining after hurting her leg which put a lot of pressure on freshman goalkeeper Ally Mancino (Belle Mead, N.J.). Mancino proved tough in the overtime periods for the Huskies helping them to penalty kicks. But UConn missed a few as Villanova took the victory, 4-1.
HUSKIES IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The Huskies have made it to the tournament 27 times in the last 28 seasons including a 26-year streak.
UConn holds an overall 43-26-2 tournament record which breaks down to:
First Round: 13-5-1
Second Round: 12-0-1
Third Round: 6-2-0
Quarterfinals: 7-11-0
Semifinals: 4-3-0
Final: 0-4-0
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 (74.7%) losing just 154 games in 31 years. (499-154-45)
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 473-143-42 record at UConn and a 104-19-7 BIG EAST record. His 100th BIG EAST win came at Providence on Sept. 18.
GOAL SCORING: The Huskies have outscored their opponents this season 31-24. UConn severely outscored the Huskies of 2008 by 11 goals also tallying three less shutouts than last season.
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).
HUSKIES AT HOME: This season, the Huskies were undefeated on their home turf at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium in Storrs until their final game of the year. UConn was 8-0 entering their final weekend of play and tied West Virginia 0-0 after two overtime periods on Friday night. But on Sunday, Pittsburgh upset the Huskies 1-0 at home handing them their first home loss of the season.
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 Husky 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 31 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 BIG EAST Defender of the Year, Brittany Taylor and Lauren Ebert and accompanied by All-BIG EAST Third Team member Kacey Richards and freshman Danielle Dakin, the UConn defensive line has let up just 24 goals this season in 19 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.
RACKING UP THE AWARDS: So far this postseason, senior defender Brittany Taylor has been the recipient of three awards. She was named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, Earned All-BIG EAST First Team honors and recently was named to TopDrawerSoccer's Second Team of the Season.
For the TopDrawerSoccer award, Taylor is in the company of the women's soccer elite surrounded by players from North Carolina, Stanford, LSU and Florida State to name a few.
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 20 games the Huskies have played this season (including the exhibition against Boston College) UConn faced off against five top-25 teams (BC, Penn State, Wake Forest, St. John's and Notre Dame) and two teams that are currently ranked in the polls (BYU, Marquette).
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 were ranked 11th in the first RPI of the season. They were the highest ranked BIG EAST school followed by Notre Dame in the 23rd spot.
In the second RPI to come out this season, UConn dropped a bit but was still ranked in the top-20 coming in 19. They were the second ranked BIG EAST team, as Notre Dame has moved up to 10 in the rankings.
In the final RPI, the Huskies dropped to 26 in the rankings, and the third BIG EAST School behind Notre Dame and West Virginia. Their tough non-conference schedule coupled with the usual difficulty in the BIG EAST helped keep the Huskies' RPI high and allowed them into the 64-team NCAA tournament.
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 information 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 had just one game on TV this season as Cox TV broadcasted the West Virginia game on 10/23.
