Fairfield’s Lopez-Senechal is transferring to UConn
Lou Lopez-Senechal, who averaged 19.6 points and shot 40 percent on 3-pointers last season as a senior at Fairfield, will use her final season of eligibility to play at UConn, it was announced Saturday.
Lopez-Senechal entered the transfer portal shortly after leading Fairfield to a MAAC championship and its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2001.
Joe Frager retired as coach and was replaced by Carly Thibault-Dudonis, who knew Lopez-Senechal had a visit planned to UConn and planned to try to convince her to return for a fifth year with the Stags.
But Lopez-Senechal has thought all along that playing at a high major program would be an important proving ground for her professional aspirations.
“I’m very grateful and very humbled by a lot of schools reaching out,” Lopez-Senechal said last week when discussing her Fairfield career and future options. “It’s something I wasn’t expecting, even with the career I had here. Getting to college, I didn’t have interest from those schools. It makes me very happy. It’s been a very interesting process — not so new, but different in some type of way. I’m trying to see what’s best for me.”
Lopez-Senechal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised in Grenoble, France. She spent a year at a basketball academy in Ireland before coming to the United States. With help from her American step-father, she initiated most of the steps in her recruiting process, reaching out to colleges. Frager said Lopez-Senechal flew under the radar of many programs and that he probably wouldn’t have been able to sign her if she had the exposure that
comes with playing high school and AAU ball in America.
Lopez-Senechal first heard from UConn assistant coach Morgan Valley and a visit was scheduled from there.
“Having interest from
one of the best schools in the country — maybe even the best school in the country — is great and I was very humbled by it,” she said of being recruited by UConn. “The conversation has been great. I’m trying to see what’s best for me, but it definitely has been really good with them and I’m very happy that I’m able to be in the conversation with them.”
Frager said: “Lou is a phenomenal shooter and a true jump shooter, not a set shooter. At 6-1, when she rises up, she’s able to get that shot off very well. She does a nice job reading screens, which has gotten better over four years, and she’s really developed a scoring mentality. When we first got her, she’d take two or three shots and miss and wouldn’t want to shoot anymore. I was like, ‘No, no, no. Your role on this team is to hunt your shot.’ She really grew into that. And during her junior and senior year, she took virtually every big shot we had to take.”
Lopez-Senechal will help UConn stretch defense with her range, giving the Huskies an important scoring option from the perimeter, particularly in the absence of departed seniors Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook.
“One of my goals is to play professionally,” LopezSenechal said. “I think the possibility of going to a bigger school is important to me, to play at a higher level, against better competition, practicing against the best players every day. I think it’s very important to prepare me, physically and mentally, for a higher level. That’s what I’m looking for, a challenge for myself. One year, it can go by fast, but it can also give me a lot. I’m trying to use that the best way possible.
“For my senior year ending, and my four years in Fairfield, it couldn’t have been better. It was great that we did that for Coach Frager, and it was really rewarding after my journey. I feel very blessed. I think I made a really good decision and the rest is history. It really was a great, great, time here.”