Although the women’s ice hockey team at Connecticut didn’t adopt young Caitlin Eaton Robb for the attention, they’re getting it just the same.

A feature story about the team’s special relationship with now 12-year-old Robb, who is battling a rare condition, earned recognition at the 31st annual Boston/New England Emmy Awards earlier this month. Sports reporter John Pierson and photographer/editor Tom Parent of WTNH-TV/News Channel 8 garnered an Emmy for Outstanding Sports Feature for their work on “UConn’s Little Fan.”

The feature was part of an edition of Huskies All-Access, a monthly magazine show produced by WTNH with the Connecticut athletics department.

The Emmy for the segment was one of three claimed by the station during the May 10 ceremony.

Robb, a hockey player herself, initially reached out to Connecticut’s Caitlin Salazer-Reid in 2005 for a school project that focused on athletes as role models. Salazer-Reid responded to Robb’s e-mail and the young girl went on to earn an A.

Later that year, Robb was diagnosed with Chiari malformation, which is a structural defect in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. With his daughter facing surgery, Robb’s father Pat contacted Salazer-Reid once again asking the student-athlete to send his daughter a note to lift her spirits. In response, Salazer-Reid sent a media guide along with a letter of encouragement from every player on the team.

The team has remained in contact with Robb throughout two surgeries and her recovery, inviting her to practice, gifting her with a signed hockey stick and inviting her to spend the first period of a game on the bench. And when Robb decided to launch a project to donate stuffed animals to kids in the hospital, the Huskies joined an effort that generated 120.

Robb was expected to return to school and to ice hockey.