Skyhawks Set To Tangle With Big East Foes

Skyhawks Set To Tangle With Big East Foes

Easton, Mass. - Both the Stonehill men's and women's basketball teams will play season-opening exhibition games against the nation's elite, the College's Department of Athletics announced on Wednesday.

The men's program will open their season on Sunday, November 9 at Notre Dame while the women kickoff their 2008-09 campaign Thursday, November 6 at the University of Connecticut.

"These games represent our commitment to providing our student-athletes with the highest level of competition," said Stonehill Director of Athletics, Brendan Sullivan. "Because of the caliber of programs we have entered into agreements with, this is a unique opportunity for our College to be seen on a national stage on multiple occasions."

The men will travel to South Bend to take on a Fighting Irish squad that finished second in the Big East, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finished with a final Associated Press ranking of 15 a season ago. They return four of their five starters, including 6-8 junior Luke Harangody, who was named Big East Player of the Year after leading the Conference in scoring and rebounding.

The Skyhawks, meanwhile have all five starters back from an squad that went 18-14 and advanced to the Northeast-10 semifinals. Among those returning are senior Nick Smith (Colonia, N.J.) and junior Randall Stallworth (Toms River, N.J.). Smith cracked the 1,000 point barrier for his career during his junior campaign and Stallworth scored a career-high 28 points in the final game of the season last year.

"It is a great opportunity for our players to be able to compete against such a quality program like Notre Dame," said head coach David McLaughlin. "They play in the toughest conference in the country and have a unique blend of academic and athletic tradition.  We try to pride ourselves on similar characteristics at the Division II level."

The Trish Brown led Stonehill women's squad returns a wealth of talent to a squad the claimed both the Northeast-10 regular season and tournament titles a season ago, finishing 27-5 and advancing to the NCAA Regional Semifinals. Back for her junior season is All-America Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass.), who returned from injury to average 17 points and eight rebounds a game en route to Northeast-10 All-Star honors. Also back in the fold for Stonehill is senior Bethany Tighe (North Easton, Mass.) who netted 10.1 points and hauled in 7.6 boards in starting 31 of 32 games as a junior.

Perennial national power Connecticut advanced to the Final Four last year and ended their season at 36-2. They are led by head coach Geno Auriemma, who in 23 years on the Husky sidelines has produced five NCAA Championships. Under his tutelage, sophomore Maya Moore became the first player in Big East women's history to be named the Conference's Rookie and Player of the Year.

"Getting the chance to play against a program like Connecticut's is an unbelievable opportunity for our student-athletes to test their talent against the nation's best," said head coach Trish Brown. "There is no question this will help us prepare for another season in the Northeast-10."

The game between with Notre Dame will take place at the Joyce Center on Notre Dame's campus, with tipoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. EST. For the women, their matchup with the Huskies will be played at the University of Connecticut's Gampel Pavilion and is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.

The complete schedules for the 2008-09 season of Stonehill men's and women's basketball will be released later this month.