“It created a lot of space for [Ostruza],” Caples said.
“A weak-side forward had to come over, and sometimes we were late in that, and she generated a lot of attack for them.”
Strength of Schedule
Game experience is one factor UConn had in its favor from the start. Though the Huskies’ record is nothing to boast about, UConn’s opponents are. Three of the Huskies’ five losses came to top ten teams in Michigan, No. 7 Penn State and No. 8 Iowa.
“They’ve got two games at the highest level,” Caples said of the Huskies’ recent games against Michigan and Iowa.
Caples compared UConn’s game readiness to that of Harvard after the Crimson played then-No. 3 and 7 Michigan and Michigan State.
Harvard will also contend with a number of the top threats in the nation in October, including local rival and national No. 12 Northeastern, No. 18 California-Berkeley, No. 13 Boston College, No. 17 Princeton and No. 5 Wake Forest.
Even unranked teams in the Crimson’s schedule could cause problems—Providence, whom Harvard plays two weeks from now, held Iowa scoreless for 63 minutes last weekend.
—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.