Big East Weekly Honours: Langendoen’s Hat-Trick Headlines as UConn Lock Up the Regular-Season Title
A defender scored a hat-trick to win a game in overtime. Start there.
Serena Langendoen is the Big East Offensive Player of the Week, and the Old Dominion junior earned it the hard way. In Sunday’s 4-3 overtime win at Richmond she opened the scoring from a penalty corner in the second quarter, put the Monarchs 3-2 up with five minutes left, then completed her hat-trick with the overtime winner, again from a corner, set up by Madison Zalewski and Nicolette Saccomandi. Add Friday’s win at Temple and her weekend reads three goals and six points, all from the back line.
The numbers behind her season are getting silly. That was her fifth game-winning goal of the season and her 15th goal overall, more than her first two seasons combined. She leads the Big East in goals, points, shots, shots on goal and game-winners, and ranks fourth in the country in goals per game. She was also named the NFHCA’s national Division I Offensive Player of the Week for the same weekend, which tells you the rest of the country noticed too.
UConn’s defence just won a title
The Defensive Player of the Week is UConn’s Fien Hollander, and her award comes with a trophy attached. The Huskies beat Georgetown 2-0 and Cornell 2-0 to clinch the Big East regular-season championship, and the defensive numbers are stark: Georgetown were held to one shot all game, Cornell to five, and neither side managed a single shot on goal across the two matches. Hollander scored UConn’s second goal at Cornell for good measure.
UConn are 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference, ranked No. 3 in the country. The tournament is theirs to lose now, and with a defence playing like this, losing it looks like hard work.
The freshman prize goes to Liberty
Freshman of the Week is Liberty’s Clarisa Iudicello. Her goal in the 38th minute was the winner in No. 12 Liberty’s 3-1 win at Providence, her 10th goal of the season, a team high, and she is only the fifth freshman in programme history to reach double figures.
The weekly honor roll rounds out with UConn’s Olivia McKenna, Liberty’s Julieta Tornati, Old Dominion’s Madison Zalewski, Temple’s Mathéa Lassalle and Villanova’s Colleen Finnan.
Two weekends left, and the shape of the Big East is set: UConn champions and waiting, Old Dominion dangerous behind the league’s most productive defender, Liberty’s freshmen already deciding games. The conference tournament should be a fight.
More college hockey: the MAC Week 8 honours, the ACC stretch run, and the US College Wednesday round-up.
