Officially, UConn opened its 2011-12 season on Sunday against Holy Cross but in reality, the season really begins on Monday when the Huskies play Stanford at 7:30 p.m. at the XL Center.

While the first two games accomplished little other than giving UConn's freshmen and role players a chance to build confidence, the fifth-ranked Cardinal will pose a challenge that neither Holy Cross nor Pacific were able to.
“I just know we are going to be playing a really good team,” UConn sophomore guard Bria Hartley said. “It is going to be a really good game and we'll go out there and see how good we are.”

The last time the teams met, Stanford ended the Huskies NCAA Division I record 90-game winning streak. Now the Cardinal will be attempted to snap Connecticut’s Division I record 85-game home winning streak
Stanford, with one of the most formidable front lines in women’s college basketball, figure to test the Huskies unlike the teams UConn faced in both the early stages of the regular season as well as in the preseason.

“We are looking to see if we are the team that if things don't go right for us all the time, we can bring it out and pull each other back together,” UConn freshman guard/forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said. “That is the biggest thing we have to work on. If we make one turnover, we can't make it two, three, four.”

Unlike a year ago when both teams had more than a month of regular-season games under their collective belts, the Huskies and Cardinal are squaring off even before either team has established a true identity.

 “We played in some of those preseason tip-off classics, we played right off the bat top 10 teams,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “We are both in the same boat. It is not like one of us has been practicing and playing games for a month and the other one hasn't. There will be a lot of things they are not prepared for and a lot of things we are not prepared for. "