Huskies Complete a Perfect Weekend With Shutout of Lehigh

Boxscore (.pdf)

Boxscore (.html)

STORRS, CT (August 31) – The University of Connecticut field hockey team completed a perfect weekend with a 2-0 victory over Lehigh at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex Sunday afternoon in Storrs, Conn.  With the win, UConn improves to 2-0 on the season, while Lehigh falls to 0-2.

The Huskies stormed out of the gate in the first half, recording 19 shots and earning seven penalty corners.  Preseason All-BIG EAST selection Lauren Henderson (Avondale Harare, Zimbabwe) took eight shots in the first stanza and managed to punch one in at the 6:46 mark.  Henderson collected the ball 25 yards from the net and dribbled to the top of the circle and rifled a shot past diving Lehigh keeper Megan Gove to give Connecticut a 1-0 advantage.   

Once again the story of the day was the suffocating UConn defense, which did not allow the Mountain Hawks a shot in the second half and held them to only four shots on the afternoon.  Junior back Abby Ostruzka (Riverside, CT) played an exceptional game on the defensive end for Connecticut, killing any scoring opportunity Lehigh had with smart, aggressive play.   

The Huskies were able to capitalize on one of their 16 penalty corners as sophomore Laura Puddle (Thames, England) redirected a shot from Henderson into the lower left hand corner to put the Huskies up 2-0 with 18:36 remaining in the second half.   

Maureen Butler played another quality game in net for the Huskies, stopping all three shots she faced.  Megan Grove was put on full alert by the Husky offense as she faced 34 shots on the afternoon (15 on net) and made 13 saves.

With the victory, the Huskies win the UConn Field Hockey Classic, thanks to Lafayette's 5-4 victory over Albany.  UConn is back in action Sunday, September 7 when they square off against BIG TEN foe, Penn State in Happy Valley.  Game time is set for noon.