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\u201cOh my god, it’s the best thing ever,\u201d said El Alfy. \u201cI mean, people are really excited back home, and it’s our first time winning a game in the World Cup, and it’s our first time qualifying ever. So, it’s really, pretty special to get to experience that, and, you know, you feel proud that your country’s making history. I think it’s really, really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
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During Group Stage play, the Huskies tried to watch as many games as they could. Games are always on the TVs inside Werth Champions Center, and players stream even more games on their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s definitely a lot of fun, like in the training room, just before practice, after practice, we’re all watching, staring at the TV, just seeing whose teams are doing well, whose teams are in, and whose teams are out,\u201d said freshman Olivia Vukosa. \u201cIt’s just a lot of fun, especially with the men’s team too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Jovana Popovic\u2019s Serbia didn\u2019t qualify, she was rooting for Portugal and Brazil because of stars\u00a0Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. Vukosa was rooting for Croatia, since she holds citizenship in her family\u2019s home country and plays for Croatia in FIBA tournaments. A handful of the Huskies played soccer briefly growing up and still love the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really love it,\u201d said sophomore Blanca Qui\u00f1onez following Ecuador\u2019s loss in the Round of 32. \u201cMy twin plays soccer. I actually played soccer when I was younger. My dad plays soccer, so I’m surrounded by soccer in my family, so I really enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Allie Ziebell said Malou-Mamel is the biggest soccer fan on the team. And even though Auriemma\u2019s team didn\u2019t qualify, he still enjoyed joining in on the fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we started one of our workouts, he asked a question about, like, whose team was still in it, and people raised their hands, and it was a big deal,\u201d said Ziebell. \u201cHe can\u2019t (raise his hand). So, I don\u2019t know why we were having a big debate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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STORRS, CONNECTICUT – FEBRUARY 22: Kelis Fisher #7, Blanca Quinonez #4 and Jana El Alfy #8 of the Connecticut Huskies react during the first half of an NCAA women’s basketball game against the Providence Friars at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on February 22, 2026 in Storrs, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Newcomer Marine Dursus\u2019 France is also in the quarterfinals after defeating Paraguay, 1-0. The French have finished in the quarterfinals or better in each of the last four World Cups, including the 2018 World Cup title.<\/p>\n
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Even though she didn\u2019t arrive in\u00a0Storrs until the final week of the Huskies\u2019 summer session, Dursus has already begun teaching her new teammates French.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah is trying to learn French because I’m living with her,\u201d said Dursus. \u201cSo she will try to learn more French, but also Blanca, she knows some words in French.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Alfy said she and the older international players have helped the newcomers feel welcome. El\u00a0Alfy, the longest-tenured player on the Huskies\u2019 roster this season, sees herself in the younger internationals.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like having Blanca and Gandy, and I with the new people, I feel like that also helps, because you know we went through the same thing,\u201d she said. \u201cEven though sometimes the new guys don’t ask for stuff, you kind of know what they’re going through and what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Malou-Mamel: \u201cThey have a lot of things that they need to learn, like I mean, side of the road is a simple one, and then everything else. So, I think just being like an open book, if they need questions, they can ask me. Jovana knocks on my door a lot, and I’m happy to answer. I was there once, and I’m happy to be that person for her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jana El Alfy #8 of the UConn Huskies cheers from the bench during the second half of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[226156,64,63,726,283639,85],"class_list":["post-786821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-ct-insider","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}