New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a ollaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to recaps, previews, features and exclusive coverage.
Women's
soccer and volleyball teams played their conference openers last weekend and
it’s time for men's soccer and field hockey squads do the same. Both sports kickoff conference schedules this
weekend, starting the journey towards an America East championship.
We'll
start in men’s soccer where conference supremacy is up for grabs because no
team has really stood out as the clear-cut favorite. Vermont currently sits in first-place but
three teams are directly behind them and the preseason conference favorite sits
in the cellar. So, the door is wide
open.
In
action this afternoon are New Hampshire and Stony Brook. Those two teams square off in Durham and are
currently tied in the overall standings, both teams entering today’s game with
.500 records. Business really picks up
on Saturday, though, with six teams playing their conference openers. Binghamton travels to Vermont to take on the Catamounts,
Boston University heads down to Hartford in a battle between the two bottom
teams in the standings and Albany makes its way to Baltimore to tussle with
UMBC.
With
four nationally ranked teams in the conference, field hockey conference play
will have some implications on the national scale. No. 10 New Hampshire opens its conference
slate this afternoon against Fairfield, which has won five games in a row. No. 15 Maine and No. 17 Albany square off in
Orono tomorrow which should be a great game.
Also tomorrow, No. 18 Boston U. hosts Vermont in Allston. That wraps up
the first weekend in conference play, but several teams play one final
non-conference game on Sunday.
For more of the Daily Word, head on over to the AExtra blog.