FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Stars have acquired right wing Ryan Hartman from the Philadelphia Flyers for center Tyler Pitlick.

The trade was announced Monday, two days after the end of the NHL draft and a week before the start of free agency.

Hartman had 12 goals and 14 assists while playing 83 regular-season games last season. He played 64 games for Nashville before getting traded to Philadelphia, where he played 19 more.

The 24-year-old Hartman has 42 goals and 47 assists in 245 career games over five seasons with Chicago, Nashville and Philadelphia. He was the 30th overall pick when Chicago drafted him in the first round in 2013.

Pitlick had eight goals and four assists in 47 games for Dallas, and then played in six playoff games for the Stars.

Edmonton picked Pitlick in the second round (31st overall) in the 2010 draft.

REIMS, France -- For all the goals, celebrations and wins of the past two weeks, the World Cup in some ways began Monday for the United States with a mistake.

Not a cataclysmic error or a failure of character. Just a mistake.

But World Cups can turn on one mistake. This one, resulting in the U.S. allowing its first goal in 674 minutes, didn't. Not yet.

With the ball at her feet, the place where she has the best claim to being among the best goalkeepers in the world, Alyssa Naeher picked the wrong pass. With Spain already pressing the U.S. with vigor bordering on recklessness in the opening minutes of Monday's knockout game, Naeher played a short pass to defender Becky Sauerbrunn to begin a buildup.

She hesitated uncharacteristically before the pass, as if unsure which teammate to choose. It still might not have mattered, but Sauerbrunn's own hesitation receiving the pass allowed Spain's Lucia Garcia to steal the ball and find Jennifer Hermoso. With Naeher pulled out of her goal, Hermoso lofted a shot that rose over Naeher's hand and found the back of the net.

"I think I just tried to do a little bit too much," Naeher said of the goal. "Shouldn't have played that ball into a pressure pocket. Probably a smarter decision to just play it a little bit higher up the field. But things happen when you try to play. Unfortunate way to give up a goal, but I thought we responded well."

• U.S. beats Spain with pair of Rapinoe penalties

• What's next for Brazil's Marta?

• African soccer wants action against Cameroon

That sequence in the ninth minute led to the first goal the U.S. conceded in the World Cup -- and the first time it was so much as tied at a score of more than 0-0 in the knockout rounds since 2011. It also wiped out the momentum the Americans thrive on. Two minutes earlier, Tobin Heath drew a penalty that Megan Rapinoe capitalized on.

"Obviously, with pressure like that, just need to get rid of it," Rapinoe said. "I think we all kind of came together like, 'It's fine, it's early.' Obviously, getting an early goal for us, those things are going to happen. ... Just stay in it and have each other's back. "We'll watch film, and they won't do that again in that exact same way."

The goalkeeper and the back line responded on this day by keeping a clean sheet the rest of the way. Busier than they were in any of the first three games, maybe all three games combined, the defensive effort after the equalizing goal gave the U.S. the breathing room it needed to pull out a 2-1 win and move forward in the tournament.

In the end, Spain pushed for one more tying goal. At one point, Naeher rose to get to a ball ahead of a Spanish player, then stayed on her feet through the end of the subsequent play only to fall the ground in a collision.

While otherwise praising Naeher before the World Cup, former U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry noted it's impossible to know how someone will react to major tournament adversity until they experience it. It didn't mean she thought Naeher couldn't. She just didn't know. Couldn't know.

The miscommunication or miscue between Naeher and Sauerbrunn could have been more costly. The U.S. never did control this game, even as it fought throughout for the upper hand.

The game could have gone to extra time. It could have gone to penalty kicks, like the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal against Sweden that derailed a U.S. effort. It could have unraveled.

But it didn't. And now Naeher has some of that experience, too.

"When you get out into the knockout rounds, it's always so much more pressure, so much more tense out there," Rapinoe said. "Everything matters, every play matters. Every sort of wave of the game is important. I think halfway through the second half, it was like we need to take this up a notch. Obviously, there's quite a few of us that have been there in these big games and sort of realize those moments. And that experience was really big for us tonight."

Whether or not the World Cup began for the U.S. on Monday, it didn't end.

All eyes turn to Paris

There will be plenty of time this week to hype a game that has already received its share of hype, a quarterfinal in Paris between the teams that entered the tournament as betting favorites.

And Rapinoe, for one, is ready for the fun. Even if she picked a different word.

"Hopefully, a complete spectacle," Rapinoe said. "Just an absolute media circus. I hope it's huge and crazy. That's what it should be. This is the best game, this is what everybody wanted. I think we want it, seems like they're up for it ... all the fans. Maybe it will be a pretty even split between the fans in the stadium. We've been traveling pretty deep in this World Cup.

"I hope it's just a total s---show circus. It's going to be totally awesome. I think this is what everybody wants."

VAR smiles on the United States

It wasn't the first VAR review for the U.S. in this tournament, or even the first to involve a penalty kick, but it was the most important for the defending champion. And fittingly for this World Cup, it will leave its own trail of controversy. With extra time looming and the U.S. still short on quality scoring chances in the second half, Hungarian referee Katalin Kulcsar awarded a penalty when Rose Lavelle was clipped as she chased a ball across the box in the 71st minute. Replays showed minimal contact, albeit contact nonetheless, by the Spanish defender after Lavelle reached the ball.

After Spanish players gathered around the ball in a delaying tactic that was likely unnecessary given the frequency of VAR reviews in this World Cup, Kulcsar jogged over to the sideline, watched the review and held her ground on a penalty as the correct decision.

Alex Morgan stepped up to take the initial penalty, but Rapinoe said she was instructed during the delay to stick to the team's established protocol and take the penalty herself.

"It's ultimately the coach's decision, so the ball went back to Pinoe," Morgan said. "I'm happy taking it, I'm happy giving it to Pinoe."

The physical price of success

On a hot day, with temperatures at about 90 degrees at kickoff, and with the U.S. on three fewer days of rest than its opponent, Monday's game was always going to be a physical challenge for the Americans.

Spain then pressed and pressed on that pressure point, looking almost like North American rival Canada in its willingness to go in hard on every challenge. It was a style of play Kulcsar allowed from the outset, but she was consistent in allowing it. Everyone on the field for the U.S. seemed to take their share of the hits, but Morgan was perhaps the most frequent recipient.

"I got a knock last game, but luckily I recovered," Morgan said. "Maybe the Spain players saw that and wanted to be a little more aggressive with me. But I feel like, if anything, it took them off their game more than it took me off mine."

Just as in the game between the teams in January, Spain showed off the possession game for which it is known, nearly equaling the U.S. with possessing the ball 46% of time. But the physical play was a new twist that reflected a World Cup knockout game instead of a winter friendly.

"I don't remember that being this physical, this aggressive, this reckless -- in challenges at least," Morgan said. "For me, that was a little different. I wasn't expecting that. At the same time, we were able to capitalize on that with penalties."

Spain is coming

The contrast was stark between the challenges France and the United States faced in this round. France held off one final push from Marta, Christiane and Formiga, the stalwarts of a Brazilian team that has tantalized with its potential for more than a decade. It isn't clear what Brazil will look like when next on this stage.

The team the U.S. faced Monday is just getting started. Whether it was reckless or courageous, or maybe a little of both, Spain brought showed a fearlessness few opponents exhibit against the Americans. All the more from a team that has just one all-time World Cup win and had played the United States just once in its history.

Spain wasn't intimidated by the opponent or the stage. It is already well on its way to building the kind of talent pool that will allow it to win these games soon enough.

Her eye puffy from a first-half collision that resulted in her coming out of the game, Vicky Losada chose to focus more on what's ahead than the penalties that doomed her team Monday.

"I think we have a really good future," Losada said.

Durham 259 for 5 (Bancroft 120*; Eckersley 70*, Jordan 4-41) vs Sussex

Both Chris Jordan and Cameron Bancroft have played eight Test matches. No one knows if either will play any more. Jordan squeezed his allotment into 12 months whereas Bancroft's five-day career with Australia was infamously paused a year last March. It may yet be that both cricketers will have even more reason to reflect on Tests missed than 77-year-old John Snow, who strolled out to the middle with some former colleagues during tea on this first day at Hove.

"Dreams come slow and they go so fast" sings Michael Rosenberg in his stage guise as Passenger.

There was, then, a piquant irony that a day which seemed likely to be dominated by Jordan was eventually made memorable by someone else who might not play Test cricket again, although in Bancroft's case the root cause of his exile has been discussed to exhaustion. Bancroft is the only one of the Newlands Three - an all too convenient label - yet to be rehabilitated. His figures for Durham going into this game - 213 runs in nine innings with a top score of 70 - certainly do not demand his inclusion in this season's Ashes squad.

Yet Bancroft's technical accomplishment in making 120 not out suggested why the Australian selectors originally selected him and his patience during 80 tough overs exemplified the mental resilience needed in the longest and best form of the game.

He was dropped once, on 59, when Ben Brown grassed an inside edge off David Wiese, and he could have been run out had Delray Rawlins' throw hit the stumps a few overs later. But maybe he deserves a fair go - in more ways than one. He went into the nineties with a straight six off Luke Wells and reached his hundred, off 179 balls, with a tuck for two off Aaron Thomason. His response was, by modern standards, undemonstrative; perhaps he felt it had been a long time coming.

Batting was not easy at Hove and Bancroft rarely made it appear otherwise. Only when he pulled and then cover-drove successive deliveries from Thomason did his strokes have the air of a man amongst boys. Yet he stayed in during the morning and early afternoon when batting was difficult; he consolidated in the afternoon either side of wickets tumbling; and he whipped the dust sheets off a few more expansive strokes towards the end of this rich day.

As far as Jordan is concerned, the conventional response from Sussex supporters to his England absence is that it suits them quite well. The outswinger with which he took the edge of Graham Clark's bat before the Durham batsman had scored would have embarrassed many Test cricketers and Clark could do no more than edge it to Laurie Evans at second slip. But that wicket was only third of four wickets Jordan took and the second of three he bagged in eight balls as Durham collapsed from a relatively affluent 64 for 1 to an impecunious 90 for 5.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was dominated by Bancroft and Ned Eckersley, the latter batting with immense good sense for his 70 not out, although he had been dropped on 5 by Evans at second slip off Ollie Robinson. His unbroken stand of 169 with Bancroft is already a record for Durham's sixth-wicket against Sussex. And Eckersley's evening flourishes were a remarkable counterpoint to the day's opening exchanges

Early rain allowed only 7.2 overs in the morning but it seems no session is so short these days that Durham's opening batsmen can survive it. So the most surprising feature of the morning was that Durham wanted to bat; the least surprising that the visitors lost an early wicket when Alex Lees drove Jordan's eighth ball of the day to Harry Finch at backward point. Lees and Bancroft are the fifth opening pair Durham have tried this season and since April 8 their highest first-wicket partnership in ten attempts is just 14.

Light showers forced the players from the field but the sky was merely grey, not lowering, and the spectators sat behind a gentle film of rain. Many people went for walks and no one crouched under umbrellas. The floodlights came on after lunch and the cricket acquired an autumnal, almost stolen, air. Bancroft drove Jordan through mid-off and you could sense his relief at receiving a half-volley. If runs came quickly that was because Brown posted four slips while Jordan and Ollie Robinson bowled attacking lengths.

Every cricket ground in the land is different but none is as divorced from the rest as Hove when the atmosphere remains heavy and the Sussex seamers strive hard for movement through sea-scented air. "A warm Hove welcome for Aaron Thomason," said the PA announcer Mike Charman, when the former Warwickshire seamer came on for his first spell. Luke Wells may be the only reminder of the days when this county's cricket was a network of lineages but Sussex is still a family.

In a couple of overs the welcome was warmer still when Gareth Harte played too early at a full length ball and skewed a catch to Stiaan van Zyl at extra cover. By then the air had freshened and birds sought food in the softened earth. A few overs later Thomason twice overpitched and Jack Burnham drove him without a flicker of effort through the covers and straight towards the sea. The bowler beat him with the next ball and that proved a portent of his fate when Jordan was recalled next over.

Thomason, though, has been well advised to throw in his lot with Sussex. This is a club to which old players return; Snow, Peter Graves and John Barclay were just three of those who were out in the middle, talking to supporters and no doubt pondering the way it is and used to be.

"Yesterday, today, twisted like a rope," wrote Alan Ross in 1951. Cameron Bancroft might agree.

Gulbadin Naib, Afghanistan's captain, blamed a shoddy fielding performance for his side's failure to claim their first scalp of the World Cup, as his attempts to replicate the circumstances of their battling display against India on Saturday came unstuck in a 62-run defeat against Bangladesh.

Faced with the same strip of turf on which Afghanistan's spinners had bowled heroically to limit India to 224 for 8 two days earlier, Gulbadin chose to bowl after winning the toss - an unexpected decision, given both the used track and his side's proven strengths.

And despite batting with tenacity for the first half of their reply, Bangladesh's total of 262 for 7 proved to be more than enough, against a side that - for all its rising reputation and proven ability to shock - has yet to find a means to compile an authoritative chase.

In 15 previous chases against senior ODI opponents, Afghanistan had won on just three occasions, and never when chasing a target in excess of 212. Moreover, their highest total when batting second was 258, four runs shy of today's target - albeit it came against Bangladesh, in Dhaka in 2016.

WATCH on Hotstar (India only) - Afghanistan's wickets They never came close to Monday's target, thanks to another masterful display of spin bowling from Shakib Al Hasan. However, while Gulbadin praised the impact of his five-wicket haul, he felt the match was lost elsewhere.

"Yeah, I'm happy with the toss, but if you look at the match, we missed a couple of catches and gave away around 30, 35 runs with misfields. Without those, maybe the total is not that much. The wicket was slow, and it's good for batting. So we look to start well. But praise goes to Shakib. He bowled really well. But because of misfielding we missed the opportunity again."

Aside from one glaring drop from Dawlat Zadran at point in the final over of the innings, Afghanistan's errors were broadly based in ground fielding, as Bangladesh took their chance to put the pressure on with confident running, and were able to push the singles even after Mahmudullah had suffered a debilitating calf strain.

"If you look at the wicket, [262] is chaseable," Gulbadin said. "But we didn't bowl in the right area in the first ten overs, and they scored like 50-something. But those extra runs [cost us]."

It was another chastening day for Rashid Khan, who was denied the wicket of Shakib by an overturned review, and went wicketless in his ten overs. And Gulbadin admitted that, without providing him with full support in the field, Afghanistan were always up against it.

"If we look for Rashid, where I want him, he is trying hard," Gulbadin said. "He giving his 100%, but he's also disappointed about the fielding. One time he's very angry in the field. That's why if you not field well, he also upset.

"Rashid is one of those players, he is trying in every department, especially in fielding, bowling, and also batting. Again, we give it extra runs, and that's why one time Rashid look very upset in the middle. So I asked him just keep relaxed and just focus on your bowling. So I think he missed his momentum there because of fielding."

In reply, Afghanistan mixed up their batting order, with Rahmat Shah stepping up to open alongside Gulbadin in the absence of Hasratullah Zazai. And though they set a platform for their side in an opening stand of 49, no-one was able to go on to a half-century. Samiullah Shinwari impressed in the middle order in his first outing of the tournament, but was left flinging his bat away in anger after being left high and dry on 49 not out.

"The openers didn't do well [earlier], that's why we give the opportunity to Rahmat Shah," Gulbadin said. "He did really well. He batted ten overs, so he fought really well. But, again, we made a lot of mistakes in the fielding. At one time we thought this would be chaseable because we bat to nine, ten - Rashid and Dawlat are also capable of hitting big shots - and Sami also played good innings. So that's why we give the opportunity to Sami."

The ultimate difference, however, came down to Shakib. "He's the world No.1 allrounder," Gulbadin said. "He has a lot of experience, he took his time on the wicket when he batted, and he bowled really well, according to the plan. The wicket was not turning much for them, but he bowled in the right areas, so that's why he got the wickets."

Glamorgan 187 for 4 (Selman 73, Labuschagne 56*) trail Gloucestershire 313 (Dent 105, Hammond 61) by 126 runs

Chris Dent notched his 16th first class century and Marchant de Lange his 300th wicket as Gloucestershire and Glamorgan battled for supremacy on the second day of the Specsavers County Championship match at Bristol.

It ended with the visitors 187 for 4 in reply to Gloucestershire's 313, Marnus Labuschagne enhancing his position as the leading run-maker in the competition this season with an unbeaten 56 and Nicholas Selman making 73.

The home side had lost their last five wickets for 47 to the second new ball after lunch, Michael Hogan and Graham Wagg ending with three wickets each and wicketkeeper Tom Cullen claimed five catches.

Skipper Dent, who began the day on 82, was dismissed for 105, his second successive Championship hundred, but had reason to be disappointed with his team's total from a position of 168 for 1 at stumps the previous evening.

Hogan made the first breakthrough of the morning when James Bracey, on 28, edged to David Lloyd at first slip. Dent went to his century, off 174 balls, with 14 fours, with a boundary off de Lange.

The left-hander perished soon afterwards, nicking Dan Douthwaite through to Cullen, who soon took another catch, off Wagg, to send back Benny Howell.

Wagg struck again when Jack Taylor, on 13, was taken by Selman in the slips and at lunch Gloucestershire were 266 for 5, with Gareth Roderick and Ryan Higgins having added 33 for the sixth wicket.

The afternoon session began with Roderick's middle stump being uprooted by Hogan, who followed up by having Higgins caught behind.

Then de Lange reached a personal milestone, bowling David Payne's off stump to bring up his triple century of first class victims. It was no more than the South African deserved after having three catches spilled.

Graeme van Buuren earned Gloucestershire's third batting point with a cover driven four off de Lange before Wagg had him caught behind by Cullen, who made it five catches in the innings by dismissing last man Matt Taylor off Douthwaite.

Glamorgan could feel pleased with their efforts and momentum stayed with them as openers Selman and Charlie Hemphrey put together a stand of 35 before tea. They were parted with the score on 58 when Gloucestershire keeper Roderick took a fine low catch, diving to his right, to dismiss Hemphrey for 28.

Josh Shaw was the successful bowler and he struck again after a partnership of 95 between Labuschagne and Selman, having the latter well caught at slip by Howell after hitting 10 fours in his 132-ball innings.

Lloyd could make only a single before edging Higgins through to Roderick and the day ended with Matt Taylor bowling Billy Root for 21. By then Labuschagne had continued his impressive season by moving to a half-century off 78 deliveries, with five fours and a top-edged six off Payne. The 25-year-old Australian, eager to earn a place in his country's Ashes squad, now has 760 Championship runs this season at an average of 69.

At the close, Glamorgan trailed by 126, with Gloucestershire's bowlers, Payne in particular, looking for a change of luck on day three, having passed the outside edge on numerous occasions.

Surrey 194 and 141 for 3 (Stoneman 71) lead Warwickshire 230 (Rhodes 51) by 105 runs

Mark Stoneman's 71 from 85 balls set the seal on an excellent second-day fightback at The Kia Oval by champions Surrey, who reached stumps on 141 for 3 - an overall lead of 105 - after earlier bowling out Warwickshire for 230.

Sam Curran, Jordan Clark and Morne Morkel each took three wickets as Warwickshire found the going tough following their resumption on 79 for 1 in reply to Surrey's first innings of 194.

Only 19-year-old Rob Yates resisted the Surrey pace attack for long, the left hander taking his overnight 10 to 48 not out by lunch and his determined resistance guiding the visitors to 176 for 5 at the interval despite the losses of Dom Sibley, Sam Hain, Adam Hose and Matt Lamb in the morning session.

But Warwickshire's hopes of a more substantial first innings lead than their eventual 36 were dashed when Yates was caught behind off Curran without adding to his score soon after lunch. After that, Surrey's quicker bowlers worked their way remorselessly through the lower order.

Morkel, in particular, was a fearsome proposition in conditions still favouring swing and seam, and with The Oval's floodlights on throughout the first two sessions. There was even a 15-minute stoppage for bad light in mid-afternoon, with Warwickshire on 208 for 6, and soon after the restart Craig Miles was caught at the wicket off Clark for 20.

Miles, however, had already done well to come through a blistering examination by Morkel. One over from the South African giant, when Warwickshire's score was on 194, featured a bouncer which clipped Miles's shoulder as it flew high to keeper Ben Foakes, who had to leap to claw it down, and two searing lifters which both beat the batsman.

Tim Ambrose fell for 18, leg-before to a wicked yorker from Curran delivered from around the wicket, and Clark had Oliver Hannon-Dalby taken at second slip before Morkel finished off the innings when Jeetan Patel skied him to wide long off.

The morning session had seen Morkel dismiss Sibley for 31, caught at first slip after adding just nine runs to his overnight score, and Hose taken at third slip for 9, with Clark pinning Hain leg-before for 15 and Curran forcing Lamb to edge to Foakes.

Surrey's second innings began with Stoneman and captain Rory Burns clearly intent on providing a positive response to the criticism following their first-day slide to 194 all out against what is a makeshift Warwickshire seam attack due to a chronic injury list. Surrey are yet to win a Specsavers County Championship match this season, with two defeats and four draws from their six games so far.

On-loan left-armer Toby Lester, who took a career-best 4 for 41 on day one, saw his first three overs taken for 25 as Stoneman and Burns did not let him settle. The arrears had already been wiped off the slate when Warwickshire captain Patel brought himself on after just seven overs and, soon, the veteran off-spinner made the breakthrough.

Burns, on 34, went back to a quicker arm ball and was leg-before, after a spirited opening stand of 77 in just under 14 overs, and Scott Borthwick had made only 11 when he edged Patel to Will Rhodes at slip. Patel's testing spell gave him figures of 11-3-25-2.

Stoneman, driving elegantly through the offside for the majority of his 11 fours, had taken Surrey's lead almost to three figures when he edged a fine ball from the returning Hannon-Dalby to keeper Ambrose, but Dean Elgar was joined by Foakes to see the home side through to the close, which came 13 overs early due to more bad light.

Leicestershire 6 for 0 trail Northamptonshire 299 (Wakely 65, Wright 4-78) by 293 runs

Alex Wakely made his first half-century since resigning the Northamptonshire captaincy to lead his side to a good opening day against Leicestershire at Wantage Road. Wakely's 65 in testing conditions set Northants up to make 299 having been sent in before the visitors survived three overs to the close 6 for 0.

Wakely's 76 on the first day of the season was becoming a distant memory with a high score in the Championship since then of only 28. Stepping down as captain didn't bring immediate reward with an eight-ball duck at Durham in his previous innings, but here he battled away to make important runs against the moving ball.

He arrived in just the sixth over of the morning and flicked Mohammed Abbas through midwicket for his first boundary before imperiously pulling Neil Dexter's first ball through the same region on his way to 36 not out by the lunch.

After the break, another pull brought up a second half-century of the season in 102 balls with eight fours before he was tremendously caught at second slip in Abbas' first over of a new spell 20 minutes before tea. Trying to force off the back foot, Wakely flashed an edge towards the cordon where Colin Ackermann stuck up a left hand to claim a fine catch.

It ended a stand of 39 for the fourth wicket - one of several useful partnerships that Northants compiled. The ball moved all day on a green-tinged pitch and under heavy cloud and it was difficult to envisage the batsmen ever getting completely on top so to nudge the board along with good purpose - reaching 187 for 4 at one stage - was a solid effort.

There were few cheap wickets. Rob Newton fell to the new ball for just 5 but everyone else got a start. Ricardo Vasconcelos worked hard for 25 before lazily driving to gully. Temba Bavuma was always scratchy but got to 20, then Dieter Klein found his outside edge with a good delivery. Rob Keogh looked in good touch, striking five boundaries but fell over a full delivery from Chris Wright to be lbw for 34.

The theme continued on a day where it was hard to say any batsmen were really settled. Adam Rossington, now Northants' Championship captain, made a breezy 45 - violently pulling Dexter over midwicket and repeating the trick against Klein to raise a first batting point. But Rossington was bowled by Will Davis and it began a slide from 210 for 5 to 250 for 9 as the second new ball claimed 3 for 7 in 13 balls.

But just when Northants were about to be rolled over Matt Coles, in his second match on loan from Essex, swung 41 in 34 balls including two mighty sixes - one over midwicket and the second over deep square - to almost claim a third batting bonus point before No. 11 Ben Sanderson chipped a catch back to Abbas.

But Coles should have been taken on the deep midwicket fence with the score at 265. It was one of at least seven catches that Leicestershire missed in a miserable display of fielding. Paul Horton at first slip, wicketkeeper Lewis Hill and Harry Dearden all missed two chances each as the visitors conceded an over par total given the conditions.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- The presidents of the schools in the Big East voted Monday to extend an invitation to UConn to rejoin the conference for basketball and other sports, according to multiple reports.

A person with firsthand knowledge confirmed to the Associated Press that the schools' presidents voted by conference call on Monday. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because he/she was not authorized to release the information.

UConn has a Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for Wednesday, when it is expected to accept the invitation, and an announcement is expected from the Big East as early as Thursday morning.

"I know a little bit about the back and forth on it. I think it could be a great thing for the state," Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told reporters at an unrelated news conference Monday. "Let's face it: UConn, in particular UConn basketball, we can compete with anybody. We're ready to take on the very best. Let's see how the negotiations go."

The result of the vote was first reported Monday by CBS Sports.

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma cautioned that the expected move doesn't mean a return to the glory days of the old Big East.

The Hall of Fame coach, speaking to reporters at a charity golf event, noted that the conference is not the same one that included schools such as Notre Dame and Louisville.

"It's like saying you're moving back to your hometown, but the block that you lived on and half the city is gone," he said. "It's not the same."

Auriemma said his team's success has never depended on what conference it is in, and he doesn't see that changing.

The UConn women have never lost to an American Athletic Conference opponent, going 120-0 in the regular season and six conference tournaments.

The AAC bylaws require UConn to pay a $10 million withdrawal fee and give 27 months' notice before leaving. But terms of the departure were still being negotiated on Monday.

UConn is expected to spend at least another season in the AAC before it moves, and junior Megan Walker said keeping that spotless record intact will be a priority. She said the Huskies understand that the league's other teams now have even more motivation to beat them.

"Ever since I got to the University of Connecticut, we've always been the black hats, the bad guys," she said. "I enjoy it. If we didn't want that challenge, we wouldn't be here at this university. I'm excited to leave the conference or whatever. Whatever conference we are in, I'm excited to play."

Trading trips to Tulsa and Tulane for games at St. John's and Villanova, Auriemma acknowledged, will help the school when it comes to finances and selling fan interest. UConn currently is dealing with a deficit of more than $40 million in its athletic division.

Auriemma said he isn't sure what the move means for the future of UConn's football program. But the coach said he can foresee a day when all schools, not just UConn, have multiple conference affiliations based on what is best for each sport. UConn plays hockey in Hockey East and has retained its Big East membership in field hockey and lacrosse.

Auriemma also challenged UConn fans, many of whom, as he noted, have been calling for the Huskies to rejoin the Big East for six years, to back up their preference by attending more games.

"So if this does happen, there better be 16,000 at the XL Center every night," Auriemma said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.