Before she went on the court for her first Final Four, Jana El Alfy took a moment to soak everything in. She thought about her journey from Egypt to UConn, the year she spent rehabbing from a torn achilles and the still-ongoing and oft-turbulent freshman season.

El Alfy had been through a lot since joining the Huskies in January of 2023. So as they prepared to go up against No. 1 overall seed UCLA in the national semifinal, she wanted to make the most of the opportunity.

“I went in there with the mindset of winning because that's what I came here for,” El Alfy said. “I didn't come here 6,000 miles for me to perform not very good — especially in a game like that.”

She didn’t let it go to waste.