Friday Finales: UConn Unbeaten at Home, Quinnipiac March Into the NEC Semis
Two teams finished their regular seasons on Friday with exactly what they wanted: a win, and something to play for next.
In Storrs, No. 3 UConn beat Fairfield 3-1 and finished the regular season unbeaten at home. The Huskies scored once in each of the final three quarters, outshot Fairfield 16-5 and put 12 attempts on goal to Fairfield’s five. Heuker opened the scoring unassisted, then Lene Reiche struck at 38:54 after consecutive UConn corners to put the Huskies ahead 2-1, and Lucy Zich finished it at 53:13, the only goal of a fourth quarter in which both teams earned three penalty corners. Goalkeeper Natalie McKenna played all 60 minutes and made four saves. Unbeaten at home across a whole regular season is no small thing, and UConn will carry that into the postseason.
In Hamden, Quinnipiac did their damage in about 40 seconds. Martina Calveira opened the scoring in the 6th minute, converting a penalty-corner insertion off Rozemarijn van Keulen and Maaike van Wensen, and less than a minute later Ava Bleier doubled the lead, burying a pass from van Keulen to cap a quick strike double. That was the game: Quinnipiac 2, Stonehill 0. Senior goalkeeper Meike van Schoot made two saves across the full 60 minutes for the clean sheet, and the Bobcats outshot Stonehill 11-6 while earning three penalty corners.
The win closes Quinnipiac’s regular season at 11-5 overall and 7-1 in NEC play, and it sends them to the NEC Championship at Wagner College in Staten Island. As the No. 2 seed, Quinnipiac face No. 3 Sacred Heart in the semi-final round on Thursday 5 November at 2:00pm. Two goals in the first six minutes, a clean sheet, and a semi-final to look forward to. Not a bad Friday.
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