Senior sendoff
UConn quartet to be honored before regular-season finale
It’s been a long and somewhat winding road for UConn women’s basketball’s senior class.
Two came in as highly touted freshmen. One came in as an upperclassman transfer from one of UConn’s most storied rivals. The other; a graduate transfer from Ohio State, had a first year in Storrs that has been one of the program’s most turbulent seasons to date.
On Sunday, Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook and Dorka Juhász will be honored with senior day celebrations before UConn’s regular-season finale against Providence (2 p.m.) in front of a sold-out home crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
UConn has won four regularseason conference titles, three conference tournament championships and made two Final Four appearances in the span of the four seniors’ Husky careers in Storrs.
The matchup against the Friars will mark the first last for the seniors, as all of UConn’s games after Sunday will be win-or-go home with the Big East Tournament next weekend and the NCAA Tournament two weeks later.
“It’s bittersweet. I’m very excited for the next chapter but we also have unfinished business to take care of,” Williams said. “Yes, it’s our last game at Gampel but we still have a lot of games to be played, like we the whole postseason. So I’m not really looking at it like it’s the last game ever but it’s bittersweet. I’m excited and sad at the same time.”
Williams was the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2018, followed by NelsonOdoda ranked at No. 5. The duo’s freshman year ended in typical UConn fashion with a trip to the Final Four, where the Huskies fell to national champion runner-up Notre Dame.
Yet that was the duo’s only normal season. Their sophomore year was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the postseason in 2020, and their junior year was rocked with game cancellations and reschedules with the virus still in effect. UConn did return to the Final Four in 2021, yet lost again to the eventual runner-up, Arizona.
Now, as seniors, their final collegiate season as been anything but smooth as the team has dealt with transfers, countless injuries, illness, broken buses and continuous lastminute cancellations due to COVID-19.
“This is a pretty uncharacteristic season for UConn,” Nelson-Ododa said. “A lot of the stuff we’ve faced this season, I’ve never even seen in the past four years. We definitely had to just step out of our comfort zone and figure out a lot of things in order to lead our team and come out with wins and grind out certain things at certain points in the seahave
son.”
Across four seasons, Williams has played in 122 games with 121 starts—including becoming the first freshman to start her first career game since Breanna Stewart. She’s recorded 1,724 points, 479 rebounds, 283 assists and 148 steals. She was named First Team All-Big East (2021), First Team All-American Athletic Conference (’20) and the 2019 AAC Freshman of the Year.
“She’s been the designated driver. Whenever we need to rest somebody, I put Christyn in,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “She’s making the most of it. She’s been pretty consistent now.”
Nelson-Ododa has become one of the Huskies’ most prominent frontcourt leaders. She missed her first-ever collegiate game this season on Feb. 9 due to a groin injury (which kept her out for three games) but in total has recorded 85 starts in 127 career games. The 6-foot-5 center is currently tied for No. 7 alltime on UConn’s career block list with 251. She led the team in rebounds and blocks as a sophomore and junior and has a team-high 9.9 boards and 1.7 blocks per game this season.
Westbrook came to Storrs as a sophomore transfer from Tennessee. Despite sitting out her first UConn year due to NCAA transfer policies and a knee injury, the Salem, Oregon, native has become the team mom and leader off the court. This spring wraps up her second and final season playing for the Huskies as she was challenged in a new role in becoming the team’s go-to sixth woman.
“Personally, it feels really good,” she said about her recent growth. “Especially just being a senior and having this be your last year, (I) definitely want to go out on a positive note, positive tone, not only for myself but my teammates as well, leadership-wise and overall.”
Added Auriemma: “This is the best basketball that she’s played in all the time she’s been here. She’s the Evina that I always thought she’d be.”
Juhász still hasn’t decided on whether she will be returning to Connecticut in the fall. The graduate transfer has helped boost UConn’s frontcourt as one of its two most experienced post players. The Hungarian native proved she can be tenacious when called upon and has adjusted well to UConn’s style under the guidance of the other players. While her parents won’t be making the overseas trip for senior day, the team has volunteered to walk out with her.
“It’s just such a quick turnaround, if you think about it. It’s been not even a year that I’ve been with these guys,” she said. “They just welcomed me so quick, and they were so happy that I’m here. It’s really like being a part of a family. Obviously, I had a different team, but I came in and I felt like just love from them right away.”
This likely wasn’t the senior season any of the four players envisioned. Eight of UConn’s 12 players have missed at least two games or more due to injury or illness (Westbrook and Aaliyah Edwards have played in every game), while the college basketball world is still managing playing in a COVID world.
However, with the team fully reloaded now with Paige Bueckers’ return, the Huskies are peaking right on schedule. The postseason is right around the corner, and with it, UConn’s aspirations for winning national title No. 12 are as high as ever.
“With this being such a crazy year with all the challenges and adversities that they’ve never seen before, they (the seniors) handled it so perfectly and they still make sure that the team is under control and that we’re doing the things that we need to do to be successful,” Edwards said.