Wreckers go Back-2-Back
Edwards’ hat trick leads Staples to second straight state title
HARTFORD — Getting a hat trick in any soccer game is a notable accomplishment. Doing it in a postseason game is even more memorable.
But accomplishing it in a CIAC state final in less than a 7-minute stretch? Annabel Edwards did just that for Staples on Sunday at Trinity Health Stadium.
Edwards’ three goals early in the second half lifted No. 3 seed Staples to a 4-1 victory over top seed
Cheshire in the Class LL girls soccer state championship final.
“It was like momentum after I scored the first one. My confidence kept growing and I was lucky enough to get great assist after great assist,” Edwards said.
Staples (16-2-4) repeats as Class L champion after sharing the crown with Wilton last year, a scoreless tie. That, and the cochamps in Class M last year, led to the change to do away with shared titles and bring in penalty kicks to decide an outright champion if need be.
Ironically, both Staples and Mercy were able to win outright titles this year in regulation.
“What was important for us was making that happen on the field and not having to go that far,” Staples coach Barry Beattie said. “Cheshire, a young talented team, we knew we had to be at our best in order to put them away.”
This time the Wreckers thoroughly enjoyed their celebration.
“I couldn’t stop smiling the last 20 seconds of the game, it’s so great,” said Staples defender Sami DeWitt, who will play at Colby next season.
Said Edwards: “We all remember that feeling of not getting what we wanted last year. I think that definitely let us complete this game with a lot of intensity and a lot of energy and I think it showed that we were the better team and we deserved to win this time.”
This was a matchup of the second and third ranked teams in the last regular season state coaches poll.
Natalie Chudowsky, a freshman, got Staples on the board, beating Cheshire goalkeeper Sophia Bates to the bottom corner for the 1-0 lead in the 19th minute.
“It was important for us to get out of that half with zero goals conceded,” Beattie said.
But then the Wreckers went to work early in the second half. Specifically, Edwards went to work.
no-look passes, length-ofthe-court passes, simple passes, thread-the-needle passes, acting as the vision and engine to an offense that is humming along behind one great scorer, Azzi Fudd, and others rising up just enough.
Muhl scored just three points, making one of three shots. She played every second of the game until she was pulled, and finished with six rebounds, two steals and a place in the record book.
“There’s so much pressure on Nika right now, to be perfect every night almost, to handle the ball, to play the other teams’ best guard, to make sure she gets us into what we need to do, make sure our transition game is going, make sure the right people get the ball at the right time and stay out of foul trouble,
which goes against everything she believes in,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “In spite of all that, she’s able to do what she did today. I just thought it was an unbelievable performance, just unbelievable. And I don’t think it was loud, either. I think it was subtle. She’s matured so much.”
Muhl was told about Auriemma’s comments.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “He said something nice about time. That’s an anomaly.”
Bueckers had 14 assists as a freshman at Butler on Feb. 27, 2001. Renee Montgomery (Nov. 2008 against Oklahoma), Laura Lishness (Jan. 1991 against Seton Hall) and Susie Sturman (Feb. 1980) against Vermont, all posted 13-assist games.
Muhl’s 15 came against the No. 10 team in the nation. She has guided the Huskies to a pair of victories over top-10 teams so far, playing the type of basketball that is a great example of the individual growth that can take place throughout a career.
Muhl is making passes she was not able to make as a freshman and sophomore. UConn isn’t just getting by with her at the point. It is thriving.
“I feel like it’s been a process, a long process, and it still is a process,” Muhl said. “I always said there are ups and downs, good and bad things, but I feel like I’ve gotten better at learning from my mistakes, which has been the biggest change for me . ... A lot of preparation goes into this. There’s still a long way to go.”
The day started with the most unsettling of scenes, with associate head coach Chris Dailey fainting on the court just after the national anthem and being led away on a stretcher. Muhl and teammates left the court and filed into the locker room, most of them sobbing out of concern.
“She was probably more shook up about it than anybody,” Auriemma said. “Those two fight like cats and dogs every single day. So she was more shook up about it. But she’s the most emotional kid, too. There’s something about that kid. It’s just infectious. Everything she does, she does it with her heart and doesn’t ever back down to anybody.”
After an additional 10 minutes of warm-up time in the wake of the Dailey situation, UConn needed about 10 seconds to assert itself. Muhl’s first assist was to Azzi Fudd for a 3-pointer that made it 5-0. UConn led 9-0, never trailed, and played with enough pluck to make it easy to forget that the Huskies were — as always, it seems — so shorthanded.
Bueckers and freshman forward Ice Brady are out for the year, and graduate center Dorka Juhász will
miss several games with a broken thumb. The Huskies need players to do more, be more, accept more. Fudd has emerged as the go-to scorer and a potential national player of the year. And Muhl has found a number of other players, notably Lou Lopez Sénéchal and Aaliyah Edwards on Sunday, to spray the ball around to.
“Having so many injuries, having so many adversities, it gives me energy, gives me motivation,” Muhl said.
Muhl, who tied a career high with nine assists last Monday against Texas, had seven assists at halftime Sunday after feeding a streaking Edwards ahead of the pack for a fastbreak layup that beat the buzzer.
“Rim run,” Edwards said of the play, which started with a steal by Caroline Ducharme.
“We do it every day in practice,” Muhl said.
Muhl’s 14th assist to tie
Bueckers’ record came on a post feed to Edwards with 3:17 remaining. Her 15th to break the record came with 1:19 left. She grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball to Lopez Sénéchal for a 3-pointer that made it 91-67.
Soon she left the court and one of her best friends, Bueckers, was waiting, open arms, with a UConn basketball history lesson.
“I don’t know what to say,” Muhl said of the record. “I feel like it’s a nice accomplishment. They always laugh at me for saying the same thing, but it’s my teammates that made the shots, that ran hard in transition, that set hard screens for other people. So I feel like it’s a team accomplishment at the end of the day, but I feel good about it.”