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How Ashlynn Shade and Allie Ziebell commemorated UConn's national championship together

While there will be plenty of ways to remember the Huskies' most recent title, Shade and Ziebell wanted to do something more personal.

Photo: Ian Bethune

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How Ashlynn Shade and Allie Ziebell commemorated UConn's national championship together

There will be plenty of ways to remember UConn’s 2025 national championship.

Banners will hang in Gampel Pavilion, PeoplesBank Arena and the Werth Champions Center. The main trophy and accompanying net will sit in Geno Auriemma’s office alongside the first 11 while other trophies will be on display in the lobby of the practice facility or at noteworthy events. Fans will don championship gear for years to come.

Eventually, the team will be inducted into the Huskies of Honor, perhaps in a decade or on some other anniversary.

Ashlynn Shade and Allie Ziebell wanted to commemorate the title with something more personal, though. After the Huskies won, they decided to get matching tattoos, an idea that originally first spawned before the 2024-25 season even began.

“We said at the beginning of the year, ‘Hey, if we do win, we gotta do something about it,’” Shade said.

But when they returned home from Tampa, the pair put their long-held plan into action.

“It was just a spontaneous, fun decision,” Shade said.

They ultimately landed on an understated and somewhat cryptic design: IV VI MMXXV — 4/6/2025 in Roman Numerals, the date that UConn defeated South Carolina — in black ink on their right biceps.

Shade and Ziebell might be the only players to get matching championship tattoos so far but they aren’t the only people in and around the program to get inked up in honor of their achievement.

“Other people have gotten other variations,” Shade said.

Now, they’ll be a test case for a longstanding program rule. UConn previously required players to cover tattoos during games, whether that be with sleeves, band aids or medical tape. Gabby Williams needed black physio tape to cover a design she got with her sister. Christyn Williams shrouded ink on her inner left forearm.

The policy has seemed to lighten up in recent years, though. Nika Mühl used to wear white athletic tape around her left wrist to hide a tattoo but by the end of her career, her lower biceps were bare despite the art on either side.

The Huskies’ guidelines have always evolved over time, though. The dress code used to be more strict and players were previously banned from Twitter during the season. They know what to pull back on.

But they remain inflexible in terms of conduct.

“We have no rules, we have standards,” Chris Dailey said in 2022. “We have a standard and expectation of behavior. That’s the way we operate.”

For Shade, the significance of the tattoo goes beyond the championship — though that turned out to be a coincidence more than anything.

“My uncle loved it because it's his birthday. He's like, ‘Oh my God, you got my birthday tattooed,” she said. ‘I was like, ‘Yeah, not for you.’ But now I always know his birthday.’”

Her dad wasn’t necessarily as thrilled. If UConn manages to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Breanna Stewart captured four straight from 2013-16, don’t expect Shade to add more ink.

“It is my first. Probably my first and only right now. My dad said, ‘No more,’” she laughed.

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