UNCASVILLE — The last time Lou Lopez-Senechal played a basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena, on March 6, 2023, she scored 14 points on 62.5% shooting to help the UConn women’s basketball team win its 21st Big East championship and earn all-tournament honors.
On Friday, nearly 15 months later, Lopez-Senechal returned to the state she called home for five years in college to face the Connecticut Sun in what is her rookie WNBA season with the Dallas Wings. Dallas selected her with the No. 5 overall pick in 2023 but she underwent season-ending knee surgery shortly after the WNBA Draft to repair a lingering injury suffered at UConn.
“It took longer than we thought it would, but I also tried not to rush anything,” Lopez-Senechal said. “I knew that it was the beginning of my professional career, so I didn’t want to rush anything or take the wrong steps, so I really took it seriously … Even on the sideline (last year), I was trying to really be involved with the team as much as possible, listen to them, learn … and I think it made me feel a bit better now coming back to Dallas and knowing who I was surrounded with.”
Lopez-Senechal played for four years at Fairfield before transferring to UConn in 2022-23, and the 6-foot-1 guard made an immediate impact in her lone season with the Huskies. She earned first-team All-Big East honors averaging 15.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, also leading UConn in 3-point shooting, hitting 44%. But because recovery from surgery took longer than Lopez-Senechal expected, she wasn’t able to work out at full speed until early October.
Advertisement
Lopez-Senechal spent the last seven months playing overseas to ease back into the grind of competition, first with Zabiny Brno in the Czech Republic, then with Spanish squad Jairis. Her development showed over just 21 combined games in the international leagues. She averaged 9.8 points but hit just just 18.2% from 3-point range in eight games for Zabiny Brno, and that improved to 10.8 points on 44.2% outside shooting with Jairis.
“I went first to the Czech Republic, and then switched to a team in Spain, and that ended up being really good. I loved playing in Spain because it’s some of the best competition in Europe,” she said. “It was just trying to get my rhythm back and get playing again. This was the first time for me that I had that type of injury where I had to take a step back for a long time, so I was just grateful to be back on the court with new teammates, a new team. It was a great experience.”
Her biggest challenge returning to the Wings was a late start to training camp. Lopez-Senechal’s Jairis team was competing in the Spanish Liga Feminina playoffs until losing in the quarterfinals on April 28 — the same day WNBA teams reported to begin official practices. She joined Dallas on May 3 and made her first game appearance for the team in an 87-79 win over the Chicago Sky on May 15.
“Definitely the pace is so much faster; I noticed that last year already,” Lopez-Senechal said. “And then the experience of the players, you play against players that have been here for 10-plus years and know the game almost perfectly. There’s definitely an adjustment being new to all of that … but I think there’s always an adjustment for everyone. It takes some time, but those are definitely the biggest factors that I need to adjust to.”
Lou Lopez Senechal #11 of the UConn Huskies defends against Jacy Sheldon #4 of the Ohio State Buckeyes during the first half in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena on March 25, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
On a young Wings roster, Lopez-Senechal plays alongside several familiar faces from her college days: Big East rival Maddy Siegrist, the former Villanova star, was drafted alongside Lopez-Senechal at No. 3 last year. Also rookie guard Jacy Sheldon who helped upset her UConn team in the 2023 Sweet 16 to give the Huskies their earliest NCAA Tournament exit since 2005. Senechal said Siegrist has become a close friend since they were drafted together and described the second-year forward as one of her biggest supporters during her injury recovery.
Advertisement
“I had a feeling (playing with Siegrist) was going to go well, because she’s a really good competitor. She loves to win,” Lopez-Senechal said with a smile. “I saw that when we played against her at UConn, and she has a great personality. She’s so funny. It’s weird at first when you see players that you played against — even Jacy this year — but at the end of the day we all love the game, and I think it’s always cool and really fun to eventually be able to play together.”
A slew of friends in Connecticut, including a former Fairfield teammates, are making the trip down to Uncasville to see Lopez-Senechal on Friday, though she said she’s not sure whether the UConn team will be able to attend amid the start of summer classes and practice in Storrs. It will be a week full of reunions for the former Husky, who will also get to see UConn classmate Dorka Juhasz on Sunday when the Wings face her Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis. The pair have remained “like sisters” since graduating, and they met up in Italy during the WNBA offseason where Juhasz was playing for Schio in the Serie A1 league.
“She’s been my best friend since UConn, since the draft, and we’ve had a very similar journey, so I think that we really understand each other,” Lopez-Senechal said. “Even during the summer last year in the league, whenever we played each other it’s exciting to see each other and then overseas we saw each other a couple of times, so it’s been great. We’ve been helping each other through a lot of things, and she’s a great support, a great friend, so I’m so happy to see her again this summer soon.”
As of early 2025, the Connecticut State Police was facing a staffing shortage of roughly 300 troopers compared to the more than 1,200 troopers the department had in its ranks over a decade ago. This is due largely to retirements, resignations and a shrinking applicant pool.
Recent academy classes are helping slowly rebuild staffing, but Gov. Ned Lamont and police leadership say Connecticut still needs substantially more troopers to meet public safety demands. More recently, news outlets reported the department had 938 troopers.
This spring, troopers negotiated a 4.5% wage hike with state officials. Troopers’ base pay is on average about $116,000 per year, but that rises to $175,000 per year once overtime is included.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Advertisement
CT Mirror partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.
Sources
Advertisement
Reginald David is the Community Engagement Reporter for CT Mirror. He builds relationships across Connecticut to elevate community voices and deepen public dialogue around local issues. Previously, he was a producer at KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s NPR station, where he created community-centered programming, led live event coverage for major events like the NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Parade, and Royals Opening Day, and launched KC Soundcheck, a music series spotlighting local and national artists. Reginald has also hosted special segments, including an in-depth interview with civil rights leader Alvin Brooks and live community coverage on issues like racial segregation and neighborhood development. He began his public media career as an ‘Integrity in News’ intern at WNPR in Hartford.
Meteorologists are predicting the next storm system in Connecticut could bring a couple inches of snow this weekend.
WTNH reports snow will start late Saturday night and continue into Sunday morning.
“There is pretty good agreement with light snow amounts statewide with up to around 2″ expected,” WTNH says.
Find out what’s happening in Across Connecticutfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
WFSB reports long-range models have been “all over the place with the development of a coastal storm.”
Advertisement
According to WFSB, some show the system moving to the south of Connecticut, which would make the impact on weekend plans “minimal.” Another model, however, shows a greater impact on Connecticut, which could mean a “coating to an inch” of snow, WFSB reports.
Find out what’s happening in Across Connecticutfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
WFSB as of Thursday also predicts the timing would be late Saturday night through Sunday morning.
The National Weather Service as of Thursday has increased the odds of snow in this weekend timeframe to 50 percent, up from 30 percent.
In the short term, it is going to be very windy today.
The National Weather Service has advisories for northern and southern parts of Connecticut due to high winds, with possible gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
Advertisement
Today, Friday and daytime Saturday will be clear and dry, according to the National Weather Service, with high temperatures starting in the low to mid-30s and gradually warming.
“Saturday is the pick of the weekend, as it will be dry and relatively milder,” WFSB reports. “While we could start bright, cloud cover will be on the increase with temps that peak between 35 and 40. Sunday will be colder as temps only reach the upper 20s and lower 30s.”
The National Weather Service indicates the chance for snow begins around midnight Saturday.
Read More:
Here are the forecast details for northern Connecticut via the National Weather Service:
Advertisement
Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 31. Breezy, with a west wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 20. West wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 32. West wind 13 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 16. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light southwest in the evening.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 36. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
Advertisement
Saturday Night: A chance of snow, mainly after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Sunday: A chance of snow before 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Here are the forecast details for southern Connecticut via the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values between 20 and 25. West wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 22. Wind chill values between 10 and 15. West wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph.
Advertisement
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values between 10 and 20. West wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 22. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 39. Light west wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: Snow likely after 1 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 26. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Sunday: A 50 percent chance of snow before 1 p.m. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 33.
Advertisement
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — An emergency room doctor at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain just returned to Connecticut after running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents — including Antarctica.
Dr. Lisa Bienia Kenton just finished running 183.4 miles in seven days to raise money for her niece and nephew who have a chromosomal disorder. Covering that much ground in just a week doesn’t allow for much time to sleep.
“We average about three hours a night,” Dr. Bienia Kenton said. “So, 21 hours we slept total for the seven days.”
It’s called the Great World Race. 60 runners started in Antarctica, then South Africa, then Australia, then the United Arab Emirates, then Portugal, then Colombia and finished in Miami.
Advertisement
“In Antarctica, it was -30°C with a 30 mile an hour wind chill,” Dr. Bienia Kenton said. “So that was by far the most grueling and kind of gnarly things we experienced. Like, sometimes you don’t even know if you’re moving forward.”
Dr. Bienia Kenton is part of an elite group of female runners — only 166 have run a marathon on every continent and only a fraction of them have done it in seven days.
“I met a lot of great, strong women,” Dr. Bienia Kenton said. “A lot of moms, same demographic as me, and we kind of just powered each other through.”
She had support from her husband and sons, who encouraged her to do the race. She trained by running to her son’s baseball games and around the field before returning home. She said her husband got her time off work to run the race after talking to her boss, who met her in Miami and ran the last marathon with her.
She said the experience of running the Great World Race left her body bruised, but it changed her life.
Advertisement
“I left there with this life, inner self or inner feeling of confidence, like I can tackle the world,” she said. “And maybe that’s going to wear off over time, but right now I’m riding that high.”
