Kasey Conn will get an upgrade when she goes to college.

She’s a Duke during the high school seasons and she’s a Husky when she plays on her travel national team, but when she attends college in about a year, she will be a Great Dane.

Conn, on July 14, announced her verbal commitment to play Division I softball at SUNY Albany.

“I made a really good connection with all the coaches there and that made it really easy and comfortable for me to go there,” said Conn, a rising senior at Marlboro High School and a member of the Empire State Huskies 16U National team. “It’s a good distance from home, only an hour and 20 minutes. So, if anything, it’s not terribly far, too.”

For the past year, Conn had been traveling all around the country playing in showcase tournaments with the Empire State Huskies 16U national team, and it was through there that she met the UAlbany softball coaches.

There were other schools on the radar, but the contact she had established with UAlbany coach Chris Cannata, and her staff made Albany the best choice.

“I just felt really comfortable with hows he watched,” Conn said. “It’s a family and I already felt toward the Great Danes without even being there.”

She’ll join a team that finished third in the America East tournament in 2021, after being selected to finish fourth. Cannata is entering her 27th season at the helm of the program, which has won at least 30 games in 15 of its last 19 seasons.

Cannata is the winningest coach in UAlbany history with a 782-420-1 record, which includes seven NCAA tournament appearances, a 2007 appearance in the NCAA finals, seven America East tournament titles and six America East regular season titles, the most recent for all being 2018.

Conn is no stranger to success with the Huskies and she, along with her Marlboro softball teammates, will be seeking their second straight Section 9 Class B championship next spring.

It’s easier to chase that with her commitment to college behind her.

“It was very stress relieving,” Conn said. “There’s a lot of fun still and just to be able to go out there.”

It’s been a long road to get to this point, one that’s taken her all over the country to various showcase tournaments, and she credits not only her parents, but especially her grandfather, David, for getting her to practices and tournaments when her parents were unable to do so.

“We did a lot of road trips together over quarantine,” Conn said. “So, we’re really close and he’s helped me a lot with my softball career.”

There will be some familiarity when she gets to UAlbany as well, as one of her Huskies teammates, Sara Anderson of Arlington committed to the team the same day.

“We played together the last four years and now she’s a good friend,” Conn said. “We have a good connection going in there.”

She knows Division I softball is going to be a step up from what she’s seen with the both the Dukes and the Huskies, but she feels her experience, especially with her travel team has prepared her to take that leap.

“The Huskies have me very well prepared,” Conn said. “Over quarantine, they made sure all our goals were still set straight and made it possible to still play and travel to all these places that we were able to get the best exposure that we could. I’m really thankful to all of them.”