The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Quinnipiac, UConn women to meet in rare NCAA matchup
STORRS — When Geno Auriemma’s first recruiting class showed up on the UConn campus, there weren’t any thoughts about stepping onto a plane set for destinations from coast to coast.
The trio of Kathy Bantley, Heidi Robbins and Kris Lamb played 43 of the Huskies’ games in their four years against New England foes. They would have laughed at the notion of playing a total of 36 games against teams from California and Florida as current UConn seniors Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams have during their four-year collegiate run.
If not for Quinnipiac being placed in UConn’s region and then knocking Miami (Fla.) out of the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, the duo would never have played either a regular season or postseason game against a New England team.
“People are reluctant to schedule us anymore and yet at the same time, with all of the commitments that we have and all the big TV games we are playing, there is very little room on your schedule anymore,” Auriemma said. “I miss those days when you get on a bus. It was like high school, you get on a bus, drive a couple of hours to go play and come back home. You didn’t have to have phones and you actually had to sit there and my players had to talk to me, they had nobody else to talk to.”
Nurse and Williams have squared off against teams from 23 states since donning the UConn uniform, and other than an
exhibition game against Post University in Waterbury as freshmen, they’ve never seen a team from Connecticut or the other New England states on the other bench. That will change on Monday night when No. 9 seed Quinnipiac plays top-seeded and top-ranked UConn at Gampel Pavilion (6:30 p.m., ESPN2).
The game will mark just the third time in NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament history that two Connecticut teams will meet.
UConn rolled to firstround wins over Fairfield in 1998 and Hartford in 2011. Coming off an 88point win in the first round, UConn will be facing a Quinnipiac team with many of the same players who helped the Bobcats advance to the regionals for the first time after wins over Marquette and host Miami in last year’s tournament. Another win over the Hurricanes made Quinnipiac the only Connecticut team other than UConn to win games in consecutive NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournaments.
“Of course winning two games last year really helped us,” Quinnipiac redshirt junior forward Jen Fay said. “I think we surprised a lot of people, but coming back and doing it again, winning that first game this year that really shows that this is something that is for real and is going to be done year after year.
“I think it will be awesome. We haven’t played UConn in a while (since a 117-20 loss in Quinnipiac’s first season as a Division I program). For all the campers and young girls who look up to us, I think it will be really cool because usually (when you ask) who is your favorite team, it is either Quinnipiac or UConn.”
The Bobcats lost their opening games in 2013 and 2015, but having a senior class taking part in a third NCAA tournament is something that has never happened for a program that has only been playing at the Division I level since the 1997-98 season.
“I woke up with one word, validation,” Quinnipiac coach Tricia Fabbri said. “This program is validated, it isn’t like we were a one-hit wonder. This team wouldn’t have it any other way at this time of March.
“We stay right in our lane with how we go about our business, our mindset and everything stayed the same. We have a game plan ready to go for tomorrow.”
It would be an understatement of record proportions to say that the deck is stacked against Quinnipiac despite its current 23-game winning streak. UConn has advanced to the regionals each year since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams for the 1994 event. A win would make it a perfect 25 for 25.
“We know we have an absolute challenge, but we also saw UMBC over Virginia on the men’s side,” Fabbri said. “Our young ladies were ready to go into film and scout. They got the plan, asked the questions and there is no convincing. They are ready to lace them up and compete against the best.”