While most students will be at home, enjoying the month-long break away from classes, campus food, and exams, Stony Brook University’s athletic teams will be busy competing on the court, on the ice and in the pool. The main sports in action during the vacation are basketball, ice hockey and swimming. The winter break is wedged between the thick of the hoops, hockey and swimming seasons, and the anticipation for looming spring sports, like track and field, baseball, tennis and lacrosse.
The men’s basketball team will close out 2009 facing off against Colgate, Sacred Heart, St. Peter’s and Holy Cross. Then the squad breaks into the New Year by having its first game of 2010 televised, traveling to Boston University on January 2 for their Seawolves’ America East Conference opener. The second televised game over the break will be on January 18, an afternoon date with the UMBC Retrievers, who have yet to break into the win column this season, going 0-7. Once classes begin in the spring, the men will have 9 games remaining on the 2009-2010 schedule.
The women’s basketball team will be busy over the break as well, finishing off 2009 by taking on Dartmouth and Hofstra, then partaking in the Terrapin Classic December 27 -28, taking on perennial heavyweights Maryland and UNC-Wilmington. The ladies will kick off the New Year by opening their conference season on the road against Hartford on January 2. When the spring semester starts off, the women’s team will have only 10 games left in the 2009-2010 season.
The fifteenth ranked ice hockey team will be busy taking on big names in the world of ice hockey all through winter break. The men will host Penn State on January 9, then Scranton and the Liberty a couple of weeks later. The team will also travel to Towson and try to protect their top-25 ranking.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will partake in two meets over the vacation. While it will probably be snowing in New York, the teams will travel to warm and sunny West Palm Beach, Florida for an Intersession Training Trip in early January. Then, the teams will head back up north to face off against Lafayette in Pennsylvania on January 16. The teams are fresh off a sweep of St Francis, NY.
The track and field teams will partake in the NYU Invitational on January 15, and will see more action as the spring semester gets under way. The spring lacrosse and tennis seasons do not begin until February, and the baseball and softball schedules for this season have yet to be revealed. Refer to Goseawolves.org and Stonybrookhockey.com for all the games taking place while you’re away from campus enjoying your break. See you next semester!
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