CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa.—In the first of two games between the teams this weekend, No. 7 Connecticut (8-1, 7-1 BIG EAST) tallied an 8-0 victory over Villanova (4-7, 3-6 BIG EAST) at the Conshohocken Proving Grounds on Saturday afternoon. The two longtime conference rivals will meet again on Sunday to close out the weekend series.
Junior goalkeeper
Jordan McGinley (Morristown, N.J.) and sophomore
Claire Borman (West Chester, Pa.) split time in goal for the Wildcats and combined to make seven saves. Borman played the second half and made four stops, including three in the fourth period. McGinley had all three of her saves in the first half during the opening quarter when Villanova limited the Huskies to one goal on their five shots in the period.
After taking just one shot in the first half, the Wildcats offense generated three shots on goal in the final 30 minutes. Freshman back
Sabine de Ruijter (Huizen, Netherlands) recorded two shots on goal on the second touch after penalty corners, while junior midfielder
Katie Capalbo (Wallingford, Pa.) also had a shot on goal on a scoring chance from the right side.
Connecticut led 1-0 in the fifth minute (4:43) when Sophie Hamilton scored in transition on a Huskies fastbreak. She took a pass from Vivienne Tucker just across the center line and beat McGinley on a 1-v-1 chance in front of the goal. Hamilton had three goals and three assists on the day, while Erica Solomen added two goals and one assist.
The early 1-0 lead for Connecticut lasted until the middle of the second quarter when a pair of goals just under two minutes apart extended the margin to 3-0. Aiyi Young scored at the 22:29 mark when she inserted a corner and then collected an ensuing pass and scored on the left side. Young added two assists later in the quarter, including at the 24:26 mark when she passed a loose ball in front of the goal to Chiara Ma who finished the play. With exactly two minutes to go before halftime, Claire Jandewerth scored from the top of the circle on a penalty corner.
In the third quarter Hamilton scored an unassisted goal on a steal and breakaway and Solomen tallied a pair of scores on a deflection after a penalty corner as well as on a shot from the left side just inside the circle. Hamilton scored from the center of the circle less than three minutes into the fourth quarter to account for the final goal of the game.
