Suffield Sports Star Heads to UConn for Lacrosse

Suffield High School senior Grace Presnick is already thinking about next year. With half of her final year of high school still ahead, Presnick has her sights on the University of Connecticut and its lacrosse program.

I am so excited about it," she said. "I think it is going to be an awesome time and I know it will be hard. But UConn was my first choice and it's going to be the right place for me for sure."

Presnick, a star goalkeeper for the Suffield girls' soccer team, who were Connecticut Class M champions this season, earned a scholarship to UConn for her athletic talents.

With a 53-1-3 record in three years as a starter in the soccer nets, playing on a Division I college scholarship comes as no surprise. The surprise is the fact that the scholarship is for lacrosse, not soccer.

"I really love lacrosse," Presnick said. "I looked at some schools but I realized I just couldn't play both sports at the level I wanted to. So I chose lacrosse ... I was never really looking at playing soccer in college."

When carrying a stick, Presnick is not in the goal. For lacrosse she plays middie or attacking midfield, roles that UConn coach Katie Woods sees her fit into well with the Huskies.

"She is a competitive athlete," Woods said. "She has a lot of energy and enthusiasm and she seemed to be a player looking for a competitive environment and that's what we have at UConn."

UConn women's lacrosse is a program that has seen a few rough seasons recently. Former head coach Angela McMahon led UConn to its best year since 2007 this past spring with a 9-8 record. She resigned in July to take the same post at the University of Massachusetts. UConn's prior two seasons had been nearly devoid of victories, with only one in 2008 and three in 2009.

Presnick was one of McMahon's recruits but had not signed with the school when Woods met her.

"She could have still gone anywhere else but I know that UConn was her first choice," Woods said. "It was important for us to bring players in here who have a winning mentality are competitive, athletic, have speed and a certain grit."

"When I met with Grace I felt she exactly embodies the type of player I was looking for," she said.

Woods will be the third head coach at UConn since 2008. She looks to build on the past season and brings a successful pedigree with her. The head coach at American University in Washington, DC the past four years, Woods was the 2007 Patriot League Coach of the Year. She placed 27 players on all-league teams in her tenure at American, showing an eye for talent.

Presnick will be joining a full class of recruits hailing from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The other nutmeg state recruit is Valerie Everett, of Haddam-Killingworth High School in Higganum.

UConn plays in the Big East, one the nation's toughest conferences for women's lacrosse.

As for Presnick's feelings about playing on such a big stage, she said: "I just can't wait!"