STORRS, Conn. (February 21, 2007) - Senior Shannon Burke (Camillus, N.Y.) tallied two goals and a school-record seven assists as the University of Connecticut women's lacrosse team rolled to a 16-4 victory over Central Connecticut Wednesday afternoon at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex.

With the win, the Huskies are now 7-5 in season openers, including a 3-1 record within the friendly confines of UConn's campus. The victory is also the first for head coach Megan Cersosimo, who took over the helm in December.

Wednesday's game was also the opener for the Blue Devils, as they fell to 0-1 to start the year.

In addition to Burke's two tallies, three other Huskies earned multi-goal games with sophomores Katy Ryan (Hamburg, N.Y.) and Whitney Michele (East Rochester, N.Y.) each netting hat tricks and Kristin Link (Slingerlands, N.Y.) putting back a pair of her own.

A total of nine UConn players scored points on the day, the most since Mar. 16, 2005, when 11 Huskies found the back of the net against Quinnipiac.

The Blue Devils controlled the first draw and maintained possession through much of the first three minutes of play, until UConn took command and brought the ball back to their offensive end - where it predominantly stayed for the remainder of the period. The Huskies opened scoring at 22:23 with a goal from Laura Trzasko (Plainsboro, N.J.) off a Burke assist to start out a 10-0 run.

Bolstered by two goals apiece from Burke and Michele, the Huskies scored nine goals in the first half.

UConn came out of the intermission with the same intensity they had going in, as Link scored on an unassisted tally just over two minutes into play to account for the 10 unanswered goals.

The Blue Devils came back strong on the attack and capitalized on the overzealous UConn defense by drawing back-to-back free position opportunities. Courtney Mooney and Julia Steier converted on each of their respective chances to cut the deficit to 10-2 with 24:28 to go in the game.

Michele and Burke teamed up to score the next two goals just 19 seconds apart to stretch the lead back to 10 at 21:58. Then, after a 7:50 delay in scoring Robyn Pastuch (Merrick, N.Y.) gave UConn an 11-goal lead and the Blue Devils would not be able to close the gap any more the rest of the way.

The Huskies out-shot Central 40-10 on the day, including a 22-2 advantage in the first half.

UConn returns to action next Wednesday, Feb. 28 with a 4:00 p.m. game against in-state rival Yale at the Sherman Family Sports Complex.

2007-02-21