In the first five years of Margaret Rodriguez’s tenure at UConn, a running joke had developed: The Huskies, inevitably, were going to be a young team.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though — they weren’t losing waves of players to the transfer portal each offseason that needed to be replaced with freshmen. Instead, those underclassmen often earned minutes over the more experienced players.
At long last, that’s no longer the case. UConn’s starting 11 will feature four fifth-years — Jackie Harnett, Cara Jordan, Jessica Mazo and Emma Zaccagnini — two four-year starters in center back Lucy Cappadona and goalkeeper Kaitlyn Mahoney, and likely four other upperclassmen depending on who Rodriguez selects for a given game.