UConn, a bid thief on the prowl, nearly emerged Saturday afternoon in the Big East. But Denver caught the Huskies in the act — and the bubble, for now, remains status quo.
Denver scored the first six goals and nine of the first 10 in Saturday’s Big East championship game against the rival Huskies and appeared ready to waltz to a fourth-straight automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Yeah, not so fast.
UConn turned on the jets, scoring 13 of the next 18 tallies to tie the score at 14 with 2:38 left in the game. But Julia Gilbert scored the go-ahead goal for the Pioneers with 58 seconds left, and Caroline Colimore followed with one more at the buzzer for a 16-14 Denver win.
UConn was kept in the game largely on the strength of goalie Landyn White, who made 12 saves. Kate Shaffer had five goals and three assists for the Huskies, who lost 18-9 to Denver earlier in the spring but was determined to put up a fight this time around.
Gilbert and Colimore paced the Pios with four goals each. Jane Earley added three, and Olivia Penoyer had five assists — four in the first half.
After Kyra Obert put Denver up 9-1 with 6:19 left in the first half, UConn netted a quick three before the break — two by Shaffer and one by Madelyn George.
With Denver up six, the sides traded goals over the first 10 minutes of the third quarter before UConn began its most furious rally of the contest.
The Huskies would score seven of the next eight, punctuated by Shea van den Broek’s equalizer with 2:38 remaining.
But Denver stopped the rally from there, clinching its AQ and likely locking up a national seed in the process.
