Stefanie Dolson has experienced a vast number of things in her 21 years but celebrating her birthday in a Washington, D.C. hotel was not among them - until now.

Dolson, the starting center for the third-ranked UConn women's basketball team, turned 21 on Tuesday. After practicing in Connecticut and flying down to D.C., Dolson had a surprise waiting for her

"It was actually a very great birthday," Dolson said. "At the hotel, they brought me a cake, that was  vanilla and orange so it was really good and I got tickets to go see Wicked and got an IPhone 5 so it was a good birthday."

What she did not get to experience is the UConn tradition of skipping around the court on her birthday, an oversight that teammate Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said needs to be rectified.

"She got a cake. oh she didn't have to skip around the (court). We are probably going to make her do it. We have a lot of us who don't get to have our birthday either in Storrs or at home  so we need to make it as fun as possible."

TUCK DELIVERS
It hasn't been the easiest of freshman seasons for Morgan Tuck.

Each time it appears as if the highly-touted freshman forward is ready to earn a steady dose of playing time, the troublesome bone bruise in her right knee reappears and puts her in just enough discomfort to that needs to miss practice time.

Tuck, who missed three games because of the bone bruise, returned Saturday against Marquette and set career highs with nine rebounds and five assists to go with seven points.

"Morgan is a good player, there is no doubt about it," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "She has been a good player since the first day of practice at Connecticut and it is just unfortunate that we haven't been able to get her the kind of time that I would like to get her but hopefully she comes out of this pretty good tomorrow and she is pretty good on Monday, play Tuesday and she has a couple days off before we play on Saturday. I am hopeful that this is a good start for her."

Her teammates liked what they saw from Tuck against Marquette.

"Tuck, whenever she is out on the court she makes our team a lot better," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "She is a little rusty. It is her first game back and I thought she did a great job. She is just one of those low-key players, she goes in and does her job and knows what she is supposed to do. That is all we need from her."