STORRS, Conn. _ UConn was up by six with just over a minute to go in the third quarter of last year's regular-season matchup against Notre Dame when the Irish's Arike Ogunbowale found an open Marina Mabrey cutting backdoor on Christyn Williams. Three Huskies attempted to swarm Mabrey under the basket, but it was then-freshman Olivia Nelson-Ododa, helping from the weak side, who prevented the score.
As Mabrey went up for the layup, the 6-foot-4 Nelson-Ododa elevated too. As she rotated to face the basket, Nelson-Ododa extended her right arm to make contact with the ball just after it left the 5-11 Mabrey's fingertips, sending it ricocheting off the bottom of the backboard while Mabrey fell to the floor. Megan Walker grabbed the deflection and Williams scored on the other end to put UConn up by eight. The Irish, ranked No. 1 at the time, wouldn't pull any closer than six points the rest of the way, and the Huskies eventually won by 18.
Nelson-Ododa's big block in what was just her seventh game at UConn didn't simply make her presence on the collegiate stage known; it was a sign of things to come. This season, her first as a starter for the Huskies, Nelson-Ododa's shot-blocking ranks not only among the best in the country, but it's added a different dimension to UConn's defense.
And only 10 games into her sophomore campaign, she's just getting started.
