Ellie Goldstein was holding a small bag of ice against her chin where she had taken a pretty good whack during a UConn rush on the cage.
“It’s a lot more physical than you would think,” Goldstein said after she and her UConn field hockey teammates shut out Temple, 4-0, Friday.
“The second I got hit in the face, the second another teammate fell to the ground, everyone runs over. We’re working as a unit rather than individually, we care about each other, we care about winning, but we care about doing it together. We work for each other and that’s the best part.”
This is exactly what Goldstein, who played at Hall High in West Harford, wanted — and where she wanted to be doing it. It took her a little time to rediscover it. She began playing field hockey in recreation leagues in her hometown, taught the game by her mother, Laurie, and was a frequent spectator at UConn games played at Nancy Stevens Field, tucked back behind Gampel Pavilion.
But when it came time to make a college choice, Goldstein chose another national power: Maryland.
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“I wanted to experience something away from home,” she said, “and after a year and a half away I realized I needed to be back here. With girls and a staff that was so familiar, and so welcoming.”
Now she is part of a drive to restore UConn field hockey to championship status. Joining the Huskies through the transfer portal, Goldstein has four goals in 11 games, tied for second on the team, and UConn (10-1) is ranked third in the country.
“We recruited Ellie out of high school and it came down to us and Maryland,” said coach Paul Caddy, who took over for Nancy Stevens five years ago. “If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back close to home. When the portal opened we were right there because we loved her from day one. She’s a fantastic player, comes from a fantastic family and she embodies everything that a Husky is; she’s passionate about the sport.
“We’re thrilled to have her as part of our program, even if it’s a year or two later than we wanted it to be.”
For a Connecticut player to make her way to UConn is somewhat uncommon. Caddy and his staff recruit globally, with players from Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Argentina on the roster. Freshman Lucy Zich, from Dusseldorf, is the Huskies’ top scorer with nine goals and four assists.
“It’s honestly one of the best parts because not only do we incorporate all of our field hockey styles together to make a unique team, we learn about different cultures and different lifestyles,” Goldstein said. “One of my roommates (Keet Castelijn) is from the Netherlands and we do a daily Dutch word, or English word that we teach each other. So it feels like we’re integrating every culture and it brings us closer together.”
West Hartford’s Ellie Goldstein in action for UConn. (Luisa Massasso/UConn Athletics)
Goldstein, Emma Larit (Staples-Westport) and Addison Infante (Glastonbury) are the Huskies’ in-state members.
“In the last 10 or 15 years, Connecticut state (field) hockey is actually really good,” Caddy said. “A lot of really talented players have come out of our state.”
UConn won five national championships under Diane Wright and Stevens between 1981 and 2017, and has won 41 conference regular-season or tournament championships, but the recruiting competition among the sport’s elite programs can be fierce. Two of the top state players in the Class of 2027 are committed elsewhere, Lily McClay of Fairfield to North Carolina, and Leah Larit of Westport to Northwestern to play for coach Tracey Fuchs, an All-American at UConn in the 1980s.
The current UConn team, 3-0 in Big East play, has lost only to Harvard, 1-0, on the road. The Huskies have outscored opponents 32-11 and outshot them 148-77 and continue to check off the series of goals for the season posted in their locker room. Unbeaten Northwestern and Maryland are atop the RPI rankings, following by UConn, Harvard and Duke.
“We’ve got a really good culture and vibe,” Caddy said. “They’re a competitive bunch, they drive each other, they have high standards and high expectations. They’re 10-1 and they want to be better and you have to have that to win championships.”
Goldstein, a psychology major who wants to become a nurse, often fields questions about the area from her teammates from far off lands, and she’s hosted the team in West Hartford.
“She’s a very nice teammate,” Zich said. “Always positive, always there for everyone. She’s next to me in the locker room, so I spend a lot of time with her.”
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This speaks to the one area where Caddy is coaching his newcomer. He’d like to see opponents icing their chins more often than Ellie Goldstein.
“She’s very nice,” Caddy said, “so she needs to be a little tougher, she knows this. We’re trying to (get across to) her that she can be ‘Nice Ellie’ off the field and ‘Mean Ellie’ on the field and she’s trying really hard with that. The moment she’s able to be consistently tougher on the field, she’s going to be unbelievable for us.”
These things are always works in progress, but the cooling weather that, for UConn field hockey, means the major tests and pressure games are coming soon, finds Goldstein right where she wants to be.
“It’s all I ever really wanted,” she said. “I would come to these games when I was younger, close enough that I would come watch them. This is definitely where I wanted to be. I detoured, but I ended up here. I’m so glad I chose to come here.”
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Ready for the spotlight
With the UConn men’s ice hockey season now underway, coach Mike Cavanaugh chose sophomore Kam Henrickson to start Friday’s season-opener against Penn State in goal. “He’s a returner and I think he earned it, he’s played really well in the preseason,” Cavanaugh said. “I think I made the right choice.”
Hendrickson stopped 42 of 43 shots he saw to stake the Huskies to a 3-1 win over Nittany Lions, known for peppering the net, as 2,522 filled and shook the Toscano Family Ice Forum. Several of the UConn women’s basketball players dropped in, too. “We’re their new biggest fans,” Ashlynn Shade said.
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Henrickson, from Carver, Minn., originally committed to Princeton, but when things did not work out, he pivoted to UConn. He played behind stellar Tyler Muszelik last season, getting into a handful of games, notably stopping 28 of 29 shots in a Hockey East win over UMass Lowell. His skill work with goaltending coach Alex Westlund, often on the ice at 7 a.m., got Hendrickson ready to compete for the starting spot and ready to perform.
“I was just trying to have fun, first game, can’t be too stiff,” Hendrickson said. “Not trying to think too much. … It was just being patient, taking that (freshman) year to develop and learn from the best of the best. It was hard at times, but it was definitely worth it. Mental maturity has definitely impacted my game.”
Sunday short takes
*Stamford’s Bobby Valentine, who had a long career in baseball as player and manager, now has a field named in his honor at the Tommy Lasorda Legacy Park in Yaphank, N.Y. Valentine’s first minor-league manager was Lasorda, and they were friends for more than 50 years.
*Windsor’s Jason Pinnock, who is back in the Giants secondary after a year in San Francisco, was in concussion protocol all week after taking a hit against the Cardinals. He’s out for the game against Washington on Sunday.
*Waterford’s Jax Higgins, sophomore linebacker at SCSU, currently out with an injury, gets outrageous numbers on social media. One short TikTok video, in which he names his top five pregame songs, got over 2 million hits.
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*Officials at Rentschler Field had to relax the no-reentry rule at the UConn-Syracuse game on Oct. 3 as fans who left early scrambled to get back in to see the exciting comeback and overtime finish. It’s not something anyone should make a habit of, though.
*It’s worth going to a Hartford Athletic game just to hear public address announcer Lance Reiser introduce the multi-national lineups with various accents. If rolling Rs were an Olympic event, Reiser would win the gold.
*Former UConn NCAA Tournament hero Callum Tung has won twice in goal for the Wolf Pack, including his first AHL shutout Friday night. With Igor Shesterkin going down for the season, and the Rangers thin at the position, Tung could be the next goalie up.
*Bobby Hurley III, the nephew of Dan Hurley, is the new director of basketball operations at St. Peter’s.
*Keep an eye on the Ravens-Falcons game Sunday. If Lamar Jackson can’t go, UConn’s Joe Fagnano moves up to QB2 and could see his first NFL action.
*What MLB problem would be solved with a 154-game season? If they’re going to dial back anything, get rid of two of the wild card spots.
*Azzi Fudd scored 32 points on the night they retired Swin Cash’s No. 32. Will someone on the current roster step up and drop 35 when Fudd goes into the Huskies of Honor on Nov. 8?
*More tough injury news for former UConn center Ice Brady, who transferred to Florida State for more playing time. Still recovering from the knee surgery she had last February, Brady will miss the 2026-27 season, FSU announced.
*The Wolf Pack’s Alex Thomas will again be filling in on New York Ranger radio broadcasts, including this weekend at Washington. Thomas will be working at least 31 NHL games before Jan. 1.
*Seriously now, did anyone expect Giancarlo Stanton to limp off the bench cold after five months and do anything but strike out? That was a panic move. If anyone was going to pull a Kirk Gibson, it might’ve been Aaron Judge, who at least played in September. Of course, there’s more to unpack with the Yankees. …
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Last word
After another playoff failure, it would be easy to say it’s the “same old thing” for the Yankees year after year. But in fact, the story is different every year. This year, Tampa Bay was better throughout the entire season, and the Yankees ended up wasting the best pitching they’ve had in decades due to a lineup, without Judge, that just had too many holes. Certain things need to be fixed, like getting players that fit together, players who can hit and play a position that’s open, rather than trying to shoehorn bats into the lineup and sacrificing defense. Better righty-lefty balance is an obvious need. Spending indiscriminately on more older players won’t fix this, nor will knee-jerk changes after a 93-win season. They need to target the players that make sense in the offseason. They have made strides in drafting and developing players, and though it doesn’t make fans happy to hear it, all they can do is try again.