Women's Basketball Begins Flahive Era on Sunday
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Under a new coach and entering a new conference, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team will open their 2015-16 campaign on Sunday afternoon.
SJC alumnus Tom Flahive '75 takes over a team that won the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season with a 17-12 mark and leads them into the Skyline Conference, where they were picked to finish sixth in the preseason coaches poll released on Tuesday.
The Lady Bears face a tough six-game road stretch to start the season, opening against a pair of CUNYAC foes CCNY (Nov. 15) and Lehman (Nov. 18).
The squad then heads south to Maryland to participate in the Frostburg State Tournament (Nov. 21-22) battling the hosts in the opening round with either Gettysburg or No. 20 SUNY Geneseo—2015 NCAA sectional semifinalists—waiting in the wings.
Upon returning to the metropolitan area, the Lady Bears will clash with Division I NJIT (Nov. 24) in their final tune-up before opening Skyline Conference play at defending league champions Mount Saint Vincent (Nov. 30).
The Lady Bears open their second season at The Hill Center on December 2 hosting Old Westbury, the first of eight home league games as part of a home-and-home series played in the Skyline Conference. Rounding out the nine-team league are pre-season No. 1 Farmingdale State, sibling rivals St. Joseph's-Long Island, Mount Saint Mary, Purchase, Sage and Yeshiva.
SJC welcomes non-conference foes Staten Island (Dec. 5), New Jersey City (Jan. 2) and Brooklyn (Jan. 16) to the Hill Center, rounding out the 11-game home slate, seven of which are doubleheaders with the men.
Circled on the home calendar is the SJC Brooklyn vs. Long Island matchup (Jan. 7), Alumni Day and Breast Cancer Awareness Game vs. Purchase (Jan. 20) and Senior Night vs. Mount Saint Mary (Feb. 11).
If the Lady Bears can finish in one of the top six spots as predicted by the league's head coaches, they will compete for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships when the Skyline Tournament begins on Tuesday, February 23.