{"id":77139,"date":"2013-05-01T09:21:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T13:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=77139"},"modified":"2013-05-06T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T13:43:02","slug":"no-1718-lacrosse-team-heads-to-first-ever-postseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/05\/no-1718-lacrosse-team-heads-to-first-ever-postseason\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 17\/18 Lacrosse Team Heads to First-Ever Postseason"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In her third season as head coach of the lacrosse team, Katie Woods has led the Huskies to the Big East Championship for the first time. (Steve Slade ’89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Update May 6, 2013:<\/i><\/strong> The Huskies have received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships on May 10. For more information see the NCAA lacrosse website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Update May 3, 2013:<\/strong> The lacrosse team lost 19-6 to Syracuse in the Big East semifinals on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s accomplishments during the 2013 season were recognized before the tournament began by Big East coaches, who unanimously selected Lauren Kahn \u201914 (CLAS) to the All-Big East First Team and named her as Midfielder of the Year, also placing midfielders Morgan O\u2019Reilly \u201913 (CLAS) and Kacey Pippitt \u201914 (CLAS) and goalkeeper Shannon Nee \u201916 (CLAS) on the All-Big East Second Team. Head coach Katie Woods was named the Big East Coach of the Year for leading the Huskies to their first-ever postseason.<\/em><\/p>\n

Preseason predictions in sports are a risky business. They are educated guesses on paper. The games still must be played, because as former NFL coach Bill Parcells once proclaimed, \u201cYou are what your record says you are.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Big East women\u2019s lacrosse season began, UConn was projected to be the sixth-best team in the conference, and no Husky was voted to the All-Big East Preseason Team. As the games began to be played, the Huskies ran off six straight wins, earning a national ranking for the first time since 2007 and completing the season with a best-ever 13-3 record overall and 5-3 in the conference. UConn also earned a place in the postseason for the first time in the 16-year history of the team.<\/p>\n

The Huskies, nationally ranked at 17\/18, are the No. 4 seed in the Big East Women\u2019s Lacrosse Championship, which will begin Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in Washington, D.C. (BIGEAST.TV), and will face No. 1 seed Syracuse, 5\/5 in national polls. In the other semifinal match, No. 2 seed Georgetown, 8\/6 nationally, will play No. 3 seed Loyola, ranked 12\/16 in the polls.<\/p>\n

Head coach Katie Woods, who is in her third season at UConn, says the preseason projections may have been beneficial for the team. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s kept a little fire in our belly,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are now starting to get some respect. With the respect comes pressure. We\u2019ve got to learn to handle and balance the two. A lot of the players are really focused on the team. It doesn\u2019t matter who gets the credit. That team mentality has allowed some of our players to do some really good things throughout the regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only UConn losses came against the three other teams in the Big East Championships: the first defeat was against Syracuse in late March, the others were last weekend\u2019s final regular season road games against Georgetown and Loyola.<\/p>\n

\"Morgan<\/a>
Morgan O’Reilly ’13 (CLAS) has scored 44 points on 20 goals and 15 assists in her senior season.(Steve Slade ’89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the 11 weeks of the Big East season, Huskies were named to the conference Honor Roll or as Players of the Week nine times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has learned something from each of their games. Sometimes it\u2019s a span of 15 minutes in a game. It\u2019s allowed us to be present and calm in a lot of situations,\u201d Woods says. \u201cWe\u2019ve had [four] overtime games. We\u2019ve been behind. I think that\u2019s prepared us to stay in the moment and stay true to what we\u2019re trying to do each minute of the game. No matter the situation, we learned that we need to continue to fight. This game is so fast it can take a turn in a matter of minutes. I think we\u2019ve really learned and keyed into that in the last eight or nine games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Syracuse, unbeaten in Big East play, arrives to the tournament as the conference leader in points, goals, draw controls, and shots per game in all games played. The Orange is led by junior attack Alyssa Murray, averaging 3 goals and 4.88 points per game. Kelsey Richardson is the conference\u2019s top goalkeeper with a 7.27 goals against average.<\/p>\n

The Huskies are the top team in shot percentage and second in goals against average for the complete season. Junior midfielder Lauren Kahn \u201914 (CLAS) is UConn\u2019s leading scorer, averaging 2.25 goals and 3.62 points per game. Freshman goalkeeper Shannon Nee \u201916 (CLAS) has an 8.97 goals against average.<\/p>\n

Woods says the coaching staff hopes the team will maintain its \u201clight and fun\u201d attitude as it heads to a new experience in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re light and having fun, that\u2019s when we trust each other and we put together our full game,\u201d she says. \u201cWe played pretty well last weekend, we just need to stay keyed on those areas we want to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal Eskin, senior associate director of athletics who oversees the lacrosse program, says 2013 is a \u201cprogram-changing season\u201d for the sport in Storrs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how you fare in the tournament, what you hope is that the players on the team that are returning are saying, we\u2019re not expecting anything less than going here on a regular basis,\u201d he says. \u201cYou hope that carries through to your recruiting, to the mindset of your team and the next time you experience these things. This is a relatively young program here at UConn compared to others; we\u2019re getting to taste something for the first time. That\u2019s new, exciting, and fresh. We\u2019re never in it at UConn just to compete. We\u2019re in it to win and be successful. That\u2019s the attitude and the culture Katie is creating here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Defender<\/a>
Defender Siobhan Wilcox ’13 (NUR) is one of the captains of the lacrosse team. (Steve Slade ’89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the group of seniors who will leave the lacrosse program with a winning record, 2013 represents a collective accomplishment they have worked toward since they arrived as freshmen four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set the goal of going to the Big East tournament every year and finally meeting that goal is the most rewarding feeling,\u201d says Siobhan Wilcox \u201913 (NUR), one of the team co-captains. \u201cThe change we have brought to UConn Lacrosse means more to us as a senior class. We are leaving UConn with not only an overall winning record, but also helping to bring UConn Lacrosse to a Top 20 team. It sets the standard for every class to do the same. It is most rewarding knowing that as a class of 13 seniors we came together and made a difference for UConn Lacrosse.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year the NCAA Women\u2019s Lacrosse Championships expand from 16 to 26 teams in the tournament field. With a national ranking and a high RPI rating, the Huskies could continue their postseason beyond the Big East Championships. The NCAA tournament field will be announced on Sunday, May 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seniors on the team will leave after reaching a goal that was set four years ago when they were freshmen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":77124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-77139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 19:23:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77139"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77163,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77139\/revisions\/77163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/77124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77139"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=77139"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=77139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}