By Bella Santoro
The grass is freshly cut. The courts are neatly painted. The talk around campus is
flying. Skyhawks, grab your purple and white and rest your vocal chords because
Stonehill sports are back and had an action packed weekend.
This pandemic has forced us to look at everything anew. It brought our community
closer together and what better way to celebrate the start of a new year than the
return of sports!
It’s been a long time coming since our sports here on campus were abruptly put on
pause due to the world pandemic that hit early in 2020. Despite the quarantines,
masking up, rapid testing, and protecting the nest, our skyhawks have been cleared
to fly the nest and compete this season!
To kick off the new season, the Women’s Field Hockey team secured a 1-0 win
over East Stroudsburg on Saturday at the W.B. Mason field. Shortly following, the Football Team took down Bloomsburg with a 35-13 score after their season was quickly canceled last fall.
“I’m just trying to take it all in, being able to prepare for a real game day again, the fans, going against someone else who isn’t wearing purple, it will be huge to not get lost in the moment,” Football senior, Justin Felder said before kickoff on Saturday. “The energy from the guys and fans at W.B. is going to be amazing, I can’t wait.”
Not only did football and field hockey make their debut after last season’s
cancellations, but both Men and Women’s Soccer took the field this past weekend and for
some, it was the first time playing in a normal collegiate game.
“With hopes of playing my first college game and having most of our games canceled
because of covid was not the exact picture I had in mind,” said sophomore, Meghan
Lord, who is a member of the Women’s Soccer team. “My first season was definitely weird
because I hadn’t played competitive ball in almost two years now, but I am really
excited for our opening game this weekend and look forward to the turn out.”
Men’s soccer faced Dominican College out of New York on the Skyhawk field on Saturday and secured a 3-2 win in second overtime, while the Women’s team ended their match against Malloy on Sunday with a tough 0-1 loss.
Also on Sunday, the Women’s Tennis team started off their season off strong with a 4-0 win against fellow NE10 school, Saint Anslem College.
With an action filled weekend, and plenty of fall teams competing for the first
time since Covid struck, the Skyhawks are ready to put on a performance for our
community and show us why we love sports so much!