America East Conference has finalized its 2002-03 championship schedule following its annual meeting in Groton, Conn. July 8-11. It was there that the athletic directors voted for University of Vermont as the host in baseball, Stony Brook University as the host in softball and Binghamton University as the host in golf to complete the 21-sport schedule.
Vermont will play host to the conference baseball championship for the first time in school history. The four-team double-elimination tournament will be held May 22-24 at Centennial Field in Burlington, the home field of the Catamounts and the Vermont Expos, a Single A affiliate of the Montreal Expos. The facility was built in 1906 with the existing 4,400-seat grandstand constructed in 1922. Major renovations were made in the 1990s.
Stony Brook and Binghamton, which recently completed their first seasons in America East, will get their first opportunities to host a conference championship. Stony Brook will play host to the four-team, double-elimination softball championship at University Field on campus May 8-10. Binghamton will host the golf championship at a course to be determined. Dates for the 36-hole tournament are tentatively set for April 28 and 29. The conference also voted to return to the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. for the men’s and women’s tennis championship April 25-27.
The America East championship schedule begins with the men’s and women’s cross country championship at Franklin Park in Boston on November 2. Northeastern University will serve as the host of that event.
The top four teams in field hockey will meet at the home site of the highest seeded team with an artificial turf surface November 8 and 10. The four-team women’s soccer championship will be held at the No. 1 seed with semifinals slated for November 8 and the championship November 10. The men’s soccer championship will consist of semifinal games at the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds November 9 or 10 and the championship game at the higher remaining seed November 16 or 17. The four-team volleyball championship will be November 23 and 24 at the No. 1 seed.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships return to the Stanley M. Wallace Pool on the University of Maine campus in Orono. The three-day event will be held February 14-16. It will mark the third-straight year and seventh time in 13 years that the conference championship has been held at Maine. The men’s and women’s indoor track and field championship will be held at the new Boston University Track and Tennis Center on February 21 and 22. Boston University previously hosted 13 of the first 14 men’s championships and 12 of the first 13 women’s championships at the historic Boston Armory.
Boston University and Northeastern University are again co-hosts of the men’s basketball championship. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will be held at Walter Brown Arena on the Boston University campus March 9 and 10. The championship game will be held at the home court of the higher remaining seed Saturday, March 15 at 11:30 a.m. That game will be televised on ESPN.
The Friendship Cottage Cheese America East Women’s Basketball Championship returns for the second-straight year to the Chase Family Arena at the Sports Center on the University of Hartford campus in West Hartford March 13-15.
The semifinals of the men’s lacrosse championship will be held April 30 at the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds with the championship slated for the higher remaining seed on May 3. The four-team women’s lacrosse championship will be held May 1 and 3 at the No. 1 seed.
The men’s and women’s outdoor track and field championship will be held for the first time at the Harold Alfond Sports Stadium on the Maine campus May 3 and 4. Northeastern had hosted the championship at Solomon Track in each of the first 13 years before passing the baton to University of New Hampshire, which hosted the event last year at the new Reggie F. Atkins Track and Field Facility.
Recommendations for championship format and sites are made by votes of the coaches in each sport. Those recommendations are forwarded to the Committee on Championships and Competition (CCC), consisting of an athletics administrator at each of the nine member institutions, for discussion. The CCC then forwards its recommendations to the directors of athletics, for final approval.
America East will consist of nine institutions in 2002-03: University at Albany, Binghamton, Boston University, Hartford, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Stony Brook and Vermont. Quinnipiac University is an associate member in men’s lacrosse.
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