UNCG Athletics over Winter Break

By carolinianweb on January 13, 2016 • ( 0 )

UNCG Athletics

Patrick O’Grady
Staff Writer

The sports teams of UNC-Greensboro were busy both preparing for upcoming seasons and hard at work competing over winter break.

While the women’s and men’s basketball seasons continued throughout the break, baseball, softball, women’s and men’s tennis, women’s and men’s golf, and women’s and men’s track are preparing for the upcoming spring season.

Over the break, the women’s basketball team saw star senior guard Lucy Mason win the Southern Conference Player of the Month for December. Mason also became UNCG’s top all-time scorer upon scoring 29 points against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

The women’s team had a record of nine wins and eight losses going into the Southern Conference Tournament on Thursday, Jan. 7.

The women’s team will host games this month against Wofford and Furman in Fleming Gymnasium on Jan. 20 and 23, respectively.

On the men’s side, the team had a not-so-positive month of December, winning only one game out of seven attempts and opening up the New Year with a conference loss at Wofford.

That being said, the basketball team saw an impressive win over conference rivals Furman during the Southern Conference tournament on Tuesday, Jan. 5. The game was marked by an incredible rally in the last minute and forty seconds of the game, where the Spartans scored six points to take down Furman.

The men’s basketball team will go on to play Western Carolina, Virginia Military Institute, Chattanooga, and Samford over the coming weeks, all of which will be broadcast on ESPN3. This month, the men’s team will host VMI, Chattanooga and Samford in the Greensboro Coliseum on Jan. 17, 21 and 23, respectively.

The baseball team was hard at work over winter break in preparation for its season opener against High Point on Feb. 19, as well as for preparation for the future. During the break, the team announced that five players had signed Letters of Intent to play for the blue and gold next year.

The first home game of the semester will be the following day and will also be against High Point. The baseball team will host an impressive 30 home games this semester against 14 different teams in the UNCG Baseball Stadium.

The softball team also trained hard over break getting ready for its spring semester opener against Jacksonville on Feb. 11. The softball team also practiced through the fall semester.

The first home game of the semester will be played against North Carolina on Feb. 24. Like the baseball team, the softball Spartans will have a rigorous schedule with 31 games being played at home.

The softball team will also host three tournaments this semester in the UNCG Softball Stadium.

Like the softball team, the men’s and women’s golf teams also had competitions during the fall semester.

The women’s team will be looking forward to the Bryan National which will be played at Bryan Park right here in Greensboro from April 1-3, followed by the Southern Conference Tournament in Pooler, GA.

Men’s golf will first see competition at the Puerto Rico Collegiate tournament in San Juan beginning Feb. 21.

The men’s and women’s track teams will have their spring semester split up into indoor and outdoor track.

The indoor track season kicked off Dec. 1 with the UNCG Early Bird Meet. SoCon Freshman of the Year Kathleen Mansure and senior Dylan Belles were the stars of the event, winning their respective events.

The indoor conference meet will be in late February and outdoor competition will begin shortly thereafter.

“Indoor will serve us to get some races under our belts which will propel us towards outdoor. I’m really excited about the season,” Head Coach Chad Pearson said.

For the 2014-15 school year, the Spartans placed 113 of approximately 220 student-athletes on the Southern Conference honor roll. This honor is awarded to student athletes who achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or higher over the course of the year. The Spartans look to improve on this showing for the 2015-16 school year and show that they are just as successful in the class as they are in the game.