The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A solid foundation
Lopez Sénéchal used Fairfield experience for UConn success
Lou Lopez Sénéchal joined the UConn women’s basketball team with a wealth of experience that has helped make her transition to the sport’s highest level a fast success.
A sense of urgency hasn’t hurt, either.
“She knows she’s got one shot,” said Joe Frager, the former coach at Fairfield University, where Lopez Sénéchal developed into one of the finest mid-major players in America. “She’s got one year to get it right there and to really make an impact and contribute to what they’re trying to accomplish.
“It’s not like it’s, ‘There’s always next year.’ There isn’t. I think that adds to it, and she’s elevated her game. That’s a credit to Lou and a credit to the UConn coaching staff. And by virtue of being with and practicing with that level of player all the time, she’s forced to
elevate her game.”
At 24, Lopez Sénéchal is the Huskies’ oldest player. Her amateur basketball and educational journey from France to Ireland to Fairfield and beyond has reached its final destination, Storrs, where she’s fit in seamlessly as a graduate transfer and helped the Huskies gain great momentum out of the 2022-23 gate.
Lopez Sénéchal is averaging 16.6 points, second on the team to Azzi Fudd’s 25.6, and shooting 53.2 percent from the field, including 45.2 percent on 3-pointers. The No. 3 Huskies are 5-0 with three victories over teams ranked in the top-10 at the time of the matchups.
And just like that, despite another wave of injuries and the preseason loss of Paige Bueckers to a torn ACL, UConn, as usual, looks like a team that should have Final Four and national championship aspirations.
Lopez Sénéchal is a big reason why, having proved that she is a capable, perhaps elite, player at any level after scoring 1,598 points in 99 games over four seasons with the Stags. She averaged 19.5 a game last season,