Wednesday night was supposed to be the night two of Connecticut’s — and the country’s — top men’s soccer teams clashed, but Mother Nature had other plans.

The matchup between Yale (7-1-1, 1-0-1 Ivy) and No. 5 University of Connecticut (10-2-0), which was scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night at Connecticut, was postponed indefinitely because of the coastal storm that ripped through the northeast. The storm dropped nearly three inches of rain on the region.

The game would have pitted Yale against one of the nation’s perennially strongest teams. The Bulldogs, who have been ranked as high as No. 14 this year, fell out of the top 25 after tying Dartmouth 2-2 Oct. 13 in Hanover. Last season, Yale played the Huskies extremely well but fell 2-0 in front of a packed crowd in New Haven.

Not all is lost for the Bulldogs however, who gained an extra day to prepare for their Oct. 19 Ivy League game at Harvard (7-3-1, 1-0-1 Ivy).

“The extra day to prepare or to rest came at a good time for us,” Yale head coach Brian Tompkins said. “We obviously wanted to play today, but we gave the guys a day off and I think that an important part of preparing for a big Ivy game is to get enough rest.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the game had not been rescheduled, Tompkins said. He added that the two schools were going over various dates and hoped to reach a decision by this morning.

Wednesday’s game would have been Yale’s first against an opponent ranked in the top 10.

“It’s bittersweet, because you love to play against the big time ateams,” defender Brian Roberts ’04 said. “But the rest will do us good.”

Last week, Connecticut swept the Big East Players of the Week board, with striker Damani Ralph given offensive honors and defenseman Shavar Thomas earning the defensive mention.

The Bulldogs take on the Harvard Crimson in Cambridge, Mass. Saturday evening.

–Katie Baker