The first game of any season is always time to celebration but for the UConn trio of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Courtney Ekmark and Gabby Williams, the two-game swing through California is extra special.

Mosqueda-Lewis, the only California native on the UConn team, will have rather large cheering sections on hand both at tonight's game at UC Davis and Monday's game at Stanford.

"It is exciting to go home to California, be able to see my family and people will be able to see me play," said Mosqueda-Lewis, who estimates about 30 family members and friends at the Stanford game and a few less than that coming tonight.

"A lot of my friends and family haven' been able to see me play live. With this being my last year, I think it would be something that will be cool for them to watch to see what kind of people I am around all the time, my teammates and coaches."

Ekmark, a 6-foot freshman from Phoenix, and Williams, a 5-foot-11 freshman from Sparks, Nev., will debut as Huskies playing as close to home as they will all season long.

In interesting bit of geography is that while Mosqueda-Lewis may be the only California product on this year's team, the trips to Davis and Palo Alto are shorter from Williams home than from Mosqueda-Lewis' home in Anaheim Hills.

"I think it is going to be awesome," Ekmark said. "I can't even imagine how jacked up I am going to be considering that I was so fired up for our first practice and the first game should be amazing and I am totally looking forward to it."