I came to Binghamton University as a transfer student from Stony Brook University. When I was transferring out, the academic advisers refused to help me leave the University, instead telling me to spend another semester there before making a concrete decision. But during my time there, I felt mutuality with so few people, and I felt I couldn’t achieve the things that I wanted to — only my writing professor was willing to help me transfer out.

“It’s not the right fit for you,” she said.

Coming to BU, I was filled with anxiety, thinking that things were going to be the same. I spent the first few days alone, but eventually decided to go to Transfer Student Services. I didn’t know what I wanted, but when I walked into the office I was met by a graduate assistant named Shiho. She could tell that I was shy and nervous, so she talked to me for an hour about all of her own hardships and anxieties to put me at ease. Her humanness meant everything to me.

“You’ll figure out what you want,” she said. “You have time.”

Shortly after, my roommate Anna moved in. She immediately invited chaos into my life — the type of chaos that I desperately needed in my timid lifestyle. She pushed me to move outside of my comfort zone. When we first met, she immediately got to know me, asking me about my interests. She saw my wall of books, and we spent the night talking about how literature influences me and film influences her.

“Tell me about what you’re reading,” she said.

I knew I wanted to write, so joining Pipe Dream was a given, but I was not expecting to join the Sports section. When I walked into the Pipe Dream office for the GIM, the only available seat was at the Sports desk. I had spent the last 14 years of my life as a competitive athlete, and I wanted nothing more to do with athletics. But the former Sports editor, Sam, persuaded me to apply.

“There’s no harm in applying,” he said. “You can always decide later not to do it.”

But I kept with the section and I quickly found out that I enjoyed going to games and interviewing players and coaches, even though one yelled at me. After I wrote two athlete features, I remember being contacted by Sports Information Director David O’Brian — a man I have spent the past three-and-a-half years working with and greatly respect.

“You’re doing a fantastic job on these features,” he said.

When I got the position of assistant Sports editor and had to start going to trainings, I was filled with anxiety again, worried about making mistakes and fitting in. At the end of one of our trainings, the soon-to-be editor-in-chief, Sasha, introduced herself to me. Over time, she became a close friend and someone that I have deep respect for. Of all the people I know, I am certain that she will accomplish amazing things.

“We’re really glad to have you on staff,” she said.

The next school year, I got to know my colleagues, Justin and Ed, much better, and we became friends instantly. When I met Justin for the first time, I immediately liked him. He is so kind and considerate of everyone around him, wanting others to feel welcome. When I met Ed, I was terrified by how scheduled out his life was. I know his five-year and 10-year plan, where he is going to live and when and how he’s going to design both his house and his outdoor living space. We are complete opposites, but through that opposition, we’ve created a lifelong friendship that I deeply appreciate.

The next semester, we hired Joe, who was incredibly easy to train and trust. When he takes over the section next year, I have the utmost confidence in him. Working with him for the past year and a half has been incredibly fun. He brings a youthful energy to the section, and I’m so glad that we became good friends.

In addition to all of the friends I’ve made, there have been two professors who have profoundly influenced me: John Kuhn and Joseph Church. Not only does Professor Kuhn know how to make 17th-century literature interesting, but he also has great enthusiasm for his students’ work. He was the first professor to help me solidify confidence in my writing, and he made me a much better student by forcing me to participate in class. Professor Church, my thesis adviser, has guided me through this semester. He has confidence in me when I don’t have it in myself, and I will be eternally grateful for both his class on existentialist literature and his help on my long-form project.

All of these people and more have made my time at BU what it is. Interactions with others shape us into the people we are, and I will leave Binghamton thankful for all the people it has led me to.

Samantha Marsh is a senior majoring in English and is an assistant Sports editor.

This season, Cummiskey led both the men and women to an undefeated regular season and propelled the men’s team to a conference title — the first since 2003. Due to Cummiskey’s success in the 2020-21 season, he has been named Pipe Dream’s Coach of the Year.

“It’s hard to say in a weird, uncertain year what it was about this year that clicked, but they got better, they swam well, and they just kind of had that desire the whole time to really go for it and make it worth it,” Cummiskey said. “We really pushed them to work hard and have some fun doing it.”

Cummiskey took over in 2019 when former head coach Brad Smith accepted a head coach position at Youngstown State. When Smith departed from BU, so did his assistant. As a result, Cummiskey brought in assistant coach Mike Kline. Junior Ryan Board, who swam under both leadership roles and has three individual AE championship titles under Cummiskey and Kline, said their coaching style clicks with him.

“[Smith] and [former assistant head coach] Matt Martinez were really good coaches, but [Cummsikey] and [Kline], I love them so much,” Board said. “Their training works really well for me. They know a lot about the sport … Having two completely new coaches is a little bit of a weird transition, but we got used to them really quick and they really helped develop a positive and great team atmosphere.”

At the AE championship, Cummiskey, Kline and diving coach Heather Colby were awarded the AE Coaching Staff of the Year award. The trio produced 11 all-conference selections, including five freshmen.

“Winning the award is really just a testament to our team, our swimmers and our divers having a good year and dealing with a lot of ups and downs and being resilient and having a heck of a weekend,” Cummiskey said. “It’s nice but winning is nicer and some of the moments in the locker room with the guys and seeing their faces and reactions when we finally knew we were gonna win, that was really the best part of the weekend.”

The swimming and diving season typically starts at the end of August and goes through mid-February, allowing the swimmers to train for six months before the championship meet, but this season, the teams didn’t get any legitimate training in the fall. According to Cummiskey, swimmers were in and out of the pool the entire season due to quarantine protocols. Going into the championship meet, Cummiskey redistributed events, balancing out his swimmers to avoid overloading any one event.

“We had some guys that swam different events that they might not have come in thinking they were gonna swim,” Cummiskey said. “Some of our freshmen did some different events and did them really well, like Jake Vecchio was third in the 100 backstroke and didn’t swim any backstroke for us all year. The guys were just willing to do what they had to do for the team to put us in the best spot.”

While Cummiskey said he wasn’t sure why the teams performed so well with less training this season, freshman Liam Murphy, who won two individual events at this year’s AE championship, credits his success to how efficiently the coaches were able to train in such a short season. In just six weeks, Murphy said he was able to improve his stroke, a feat that would normally take at least three months.

“[Cummiskey] and [Kline] are absolutely great coaches,” Murphy said. “They turned this program around in two years. They work great together. They’re funny, and they’re great coaches. They get you going in practice. They joke around with you, but when they want to be, they’re serious, and they’re great at giving you tips along the way.”

With the AE championship win, the Binghamton men’s team defeated four-time defending champions UMBC — the program with the highest men’s swimming budget in the conference, known for recruiting high-quality swimmers. Cummiskey is proud of his team and hopes to have the same success in years to come.

Murphy won both the 500 free and 1000 free against tough UMBC competition while Board took first in the 100 breast for the second consecutive year.

“I was just happy to get my hands on the wall first,” Board said. “After winning a race like that, emotions came out, all the hard work and the team battle we were in with UMBC, I was just happy to do as much for the team as I could.”

When his teammate, sophomore Justin Meyn swam a personal best time of 55.50 in the 100 breast heat before Board, ultimately placing third overall, it readied Board for the race.

“At that point, it was really close between us and UMBC,” Board said. “We were battling for every single point, so [Meyn’s] race really got me fired up. I think it got the whole team excited because, if I’m being honest, I don’t think anyone expected him to go that fast.”

Board was battling UMBC freshman Daniel Nicusan. He went out faster than Nicusan, but was almost caught by his opponent.

“I knew he was going to be really close to me,” Board said. “The way I race the 100 breaststroke, I always die in the last five to 10 yards, and I died pretty hard in the race, so I was worried that he actually caught me.”

But Board took the gold, breaking his own school and meet records with a time of 54.70 in the process. He also won the Elite 18 Award for having a 3.85 GPA in chemistry. However, Board doesn’t care about the accolades for himself — he said it is important for him to do well because he likes making his parents proud.

Board’s mom was a swimmer herself. When she was 10 years old, she ran across a road without looking and was struck by a car, breaking her leg.

“For rehab, the doctor recommended she start swimming and swam through the age of 10 to college,” Board said. “So she wanted my brother and I to start swimming a little bit and I started swimming on a team at the age of six and never really stopped.”

Like Board, Murphy also began swimming when he was 6 years old because his mom wanted him and his siblings to be strong swimmers in the ocean. Though his brother and sister stopped in middle school, Murphy kept going because he created friendships and started having success. But in eighth grade, he had elbow surgery and was out for the whole year. When he made the decision to start again in high school, he had great success, graduating as a four-time All-American, Sectional and State Champion and All-Greater Rochester Swimmer of the Year in 2020.

Originally committed to Miami of Ohio, Murphy came to Binghamton to visit his brother’s best friend, junior captain of the men’s swimming and diving team Benjamin Beldner, and fell in love with the place.

“I knew [Binghamton] was for me,” Murphy said. “I absolutely loved it. I hadn’t really been loving Miami so I was like, I think I’m gonna make the change and talk to [Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey], and he was happy to have me.”

The switch from Miami of Ohio to Binghamton proved vital for the team, as Binghamton would have potentially lost the AE championship without him. Going into the meet, Murphy had no expectations for how he might do due to a shortened season and decreased training time.

“I didn’t even really expect to do well,” Murphy said. “Usually I’m training for an entire year … as a distance swimmer, I didn’t feel like I had my aerobic base, and I usually rely on that. I have a shorter stroke, and I definitely rely on the aerobic for my short stroke.”

The 500 free was one of the first events of the meet, and Murphy won it comfortably with a time of 4:30.57, over two seconds faster than second-place UMBC junior Samuel Jyawook.

The 1000 free was the first race of the last day of competition, and UMBC was clawing back at BU and quickly closing the gap. Cummiskey told Murphy that if he wanted to be in the race, he had to go out fast and maintain that speed.

“I was in my head pretty hard … in the 1000, halfway through the race, I didn’t have any energy left,” Murphy said. “It came down to the mindset of ‘I’m not gonna lose this race.’ We didn’t know if we were gonna win [the championship] or not. I knew if I could win that race, it would put us in a good spot.”

Murphy was up against Jyawook and UMBC senior Kai Wisner, who was last year’s AE men’s Most Outstanding Swimmer. Murphy went out fast and maintained relatively even splits, winning the race with a time of 9:20.40 and breaking the school record set by Nolan Slesnick in 2012.

“I was very excited, but I was also very, very tired,” Murphy said. “It was one of the most exhausting moments of my life — I was completely and totally drained, but it was a relief. In the end, [Wisner] was pulling on me fast, and I didn’t let him catch me, so I was so relieved and excited, but I didn’t have the energy to show excitement. I was just happy it was over.”

Next season, Board will look to defend his 100 breast championship title for the third year in a row while Murphy hopes that the increased training time will lead to more record-breaking wins in the 500 and 1000 free.

The Bearcats could only hold onto their lead for the first two events when the University of New Hampshire took over. UNH won the championship meet for a conference record ninth time, dominating its competition and winning by almost 200 points over second-place UMBC.

For Binghamton swimmers, it was freshman Molly Greeley who placed the highest out of any Bearcat in an individual event, earning fifth in the 50 free with a time of 24.31. Sophomore teammate Manuela Matkovic took seventh in the event.

Senior Kaitlyn Smolar, who holds team records in the 1000 free and 1650 free, took sixth in both the 500 free (5:03.72) and 1000 free (10:30.98). Binghamton went six, seven, eight in the 1000, as junior Katie Schultz took seventh and freshman Mel Carousso claimed eighth.

Freshman Courtney Moane took sixth in the 200 breast (2:22.33), seventh in the 200 IM (2:09.72) and tied for eighth in the 100 breast with UNH freshman Cheyenne Kreide (1:05.74). Freshman Maddie Hoover took sixth in the 100 back (58.20).

There were two all-conference selections: Howard and freshman diver Lindsey Weissman. Weissman had taken third in the three-meter the weekend before.

The Bearcats finished with a total of 461 points to beat out Maine, Stony Brook and VMI for fourth place.

New Hampshire cruised to the title, and at the center of its success were sophomore Jamy Lum and junior Anna Metzler. Lum won all of her individual events (500 free, 100 breast, 200 breast) and was a part of every winning relay team, earning her the Most Outstanding Swimmer award. Metzler, who was the 2020 Most Outstanding Swimmer, won the 200 free, the 200 back and placed second in the 100 back. She was also a part of every winning relay team.

After the men’s diving team swept both the one-meter and three-meter dives the weekend before, the swim team never relinquished its lead. On the third and final day, UMBC began clawing back at Binghamton, coming within two points, but the Bearcats remained strong in the final three events to take the title.

“I’m super proud of our guys for being as resilient as they were and working hard and making the most out of everything,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “They just believed and did everything they could. I’m proud, it took all of them and it was a special weekend.”

During the awards ceremony, Cummiskey, along with assistant coach Mike Kline and diving coach Heather Colby, were awarded the AE Coaching Staff of the Year award. Junior Ryan Board was presented with the Elite 18 academic award, and the weekend before, senior David Walters was awarded the Most Outstanding Diver award.

The last time Binghamton won a conference title was 2016 when baseball won the AE tournament. In just his second year as head coach, Cummiskey already has an AE championship under his belt.

In addition to the win, several records were broken by Binghamton swimmers. Most notably, Board earned his second consecutive title in the 100 breast, breaking the meet record and school record with a time of 54.70. Freshman Lewis Lin also broke the freshman record in this event with a time of 55.90. Board had some other important swims, taking third place in the 200 breast (2:01.29) and fourth in the 200 IM (1:51.67). In the 200 breast, Board came in right behind Lin who took second (2:00.69)

“[Board] is a special guy,” Cummiskey said. “He wants it, he wants it every day. He works extremely hard and is really never satisfied no matter how fast he goes, and that’s special. He’s a leader in the pool and in practice every day.”

Freshman Liam Murphy was an integral part of the championship win and helped pave the way for BU, winning both the 500 free (4:30.57) and 1000 free (9:20.40). Murphy won the 1000 over the favored senior Kai Wisner from UMBC, smashing his seed time of 9:50.91 and breaking the school record in the process. The 1000 rather than the 1650 was swam for this year’s championship due to decreased training time.

“[Murphy] works hard every day,” Cummiskey said. “He sets the tone. We knew he was going to be there and have a great weekend. We know what he’s capable of, and I think he’s got a lot more in him. I think he’s going to be a big part of our future going forward.”

BU’s two other individual winners were freshmen Henry Shemet and Jake Vecchio. Right after Murphy won the 500 free, Shemet swam the 200 IM where he just barely edged out UMBC junior Luka Zuric, who won the event in the last AE championships. Shemet took gold in the event with a time of 1:50.41, over seven seconds faster than his seed time.

Vecchio had tough competition in the 100 fly, including NJIT freshman Ian Horstkamp-Vinekar who won the AE Most Outstanding Rookie award and who Vecchio lost to in the 100 fly earlier in the season. Vecchio was the only swimmer to go sub 49 seconds, beating out Horstkamp-Vinekar with a time of 48.98. Fellow freshman Sardon Karinsky took fifth in the event (49.59).

“This is a special freshman class that had an unbelievable weekend all around,” Cummiskey said. “[Shemet and Vecchio] came in and made an impact by winning events and adding depth. Around the board we were pretty well balanced. They all just swam well and bought in.”

Binghamton went into the meet with 106 points from the men’s diving performance the weekend before as opposed to UMBC’s zero points, as the Retrievers do not have a diving team. In past years, the lack of a diving team didn’t stop UMBC from taking the title, but this year it made all the difference, as BU won the championship by just 15 points.

“UMBC is a really talented team,” Cummiskey said. “They had ups and downs this year, and we just had a better weekend. We were lucky to come into the meet up 106 points because we had a great weekend with diving, and that really gave our guys the confidence they needed to start the meet.”

Binghamton tied a program record nine all-conference selections. Sophomore Justin Meyn earned third in both the 100 breast and 100 free, sophomore diver Ryan Cohn placed second in three-meter and third in the one-meter and senior diver Erik Temple took second in the one-meter and third in the three-meter. Also included was Walters, who won both the one-meter and three-meter dives, as well as Board, Lin, Murphy, Shemet and Vecchio.

Other top eight finishers included freshman Christopher Ghim, sophomore Matthew Palguta, senior Shane Morris, junior Benjamin Beldner, freshman Eric Kroon, freshman Travis Phillips, sophomore Zachary Ciriaco, sophomore Jackson Homan and freshman George Kipshidze.

“We worked on some offensive looks we wanted to execute [during the weather break], but it was really about getting warm and staying loose and going out there with the mindset that we can do anything and that we’re the better team,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen.

Senior attack Paige Volkmann continued her standout season by netting four goals and contributing three assists for BU (3-3, 3-3 America East). She now has 21 goals on the season, placing her in first in the AE in points per game and second in goals per game. Two of Volkmann’s goals against UNH (3-5, 2-4 AE) came after the break and were within 14 seconds of each other.

“I think [Volkmann] just really understood the game plan today,” Allen said. “She did a good job of both handling the pressure of their defense but also taking quality shots … She’s really dialed into the team performing well and has been a director for us out there the entire year.”

While Volkmann has been a key player since the beginning of the season, freshman midfielder Jesse Barer had her breakout game, contributing a hat-trick to BU’s win. All of her four shots were on goal and just one was saved by UNH’s junior goalkeeper Issy Torres.

“As a freshman, [Barer is] continuing to grow each week and ask questions and find ways to make an impact out there,” Allen said. “She was critical at the end of the game there for us in winning possessions off of the draw and getting extra opportunities on the offensive end … I’m just really proud of what she’s been doing out there and the confidence that’s growing in her.”

Going into the second half of the game, the Bearcats were down by two and were outshot 15-9 by UNH, but the team quickly found its rhythm. Both Binghamton and UNH had 14 shots each in the second half, but 13 of the Bearcats’ shots were on goal as compared to the Wildcats’ nine. Allen credited the defense with keeping the team in the game.

“It took us a little bit longer to get into a rhythm, but our defense was making stops today which really gave us extra opportunities when we needed it the most,” Allen said.

The team had a total of 11 free-position shots, capitalizing off of four of them, while the Wildcats had just four and capitalized off of one. With the win, BU is now in fifth place in the AE conference, and Allen hopes to garner another victory over the weekend.

“We’ve worked a lot on the mental side of the game and stating our intentions, and our intentions as a team were to come out with a win today and keep our playoff hopes alive,” Allen said.

The Bearcats will continue their season this weekend against UMBC on Saturday, April 24. Faceoff is set for noon at UMBC Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.

“This weekend was incredible,” said Binghamton diving coach Heather Colby. “Our whole team is 11 divers, so they are 11 extremely hard-working individuals. I thought they had a great showing, and they show up for each other to make sure the meet can be the best it can possibly be.”

Howard won the three-meter on day one with a score of 265.10, sharing the podium with freshman Lindsey Weissman who took third with a score of 240.35. Maine junior PhilAnn Dixon captured second place (244.80). Day two proved just as successful for Howard, as she captured the gold in the one-meter with a 266.35 score.

On the men’s side, the trio of Walters, senior Erik Temple and sophomore Ryan Cohn swept both the one-meter and three-meter events, marking the first and second time the Bearcats have ever swept all three medalist honors in a single event at an AE championship meet. In the one-meter, Walters won with a score of 272.20 while Temple took second (270.85) and Cohn third (262.35). Temple and Cohn swapped places in the three-meter, as Cohn captured second-place while Temple took bronze. Walters captured first and broke 300 in the process, ending with a career-high score of 312, good enough for fourth in Binghamton University men’s all-time top 10 times/scores. Howard, Weissman, Walters, Temple and Cohn have earned all-conference honors by finishing in the top three.

“Diving is a one-minute-at-a-time sport, so until the meet is completely over, you’re not thinking about what your score is [or] what place you’re getting,” Walters said. “You’re just thinking about what you’re going to do on the board next and cheering your teammates on. I kind of forgot the [men’s Most Outstanding Diver] award was a thing until I started walking away and [Colby] pulled me back. It’s obviously special, but the team is the most important thing.”

Both Walters and Howard are captains and have found themselves in an increased leadership role this season. The two seniors have pushed and supported their teammates, and Walters and Howard agreed that they have laid a foundation that the divers can work off of going into next season.

“I was glad that we were able to create an atmosphere of hard work and team mentality so that after we’re gone, [the rest of the team] continues to keep that energy, positivity and love for each other,” Howard said.

While talent is a part of Howard and Walters’ success, Howard credited Colby for making the BU diving program prosperous. In four years, Colby has produced five Most Outstanding Diver awards at the AE championships. Walters has acquired this accolade twice in his career.

“[Colby] was the one who built this program,” Howard said. “She was there every day with love and positivity — your mom away from home. She’s ultimately [the person] who made us who we are.”

While the two-day diving meet has concluded, the AE Swimming Championship has yet to take place, and the scores from the diving meet will be added to the swim meet at NJIT next weekend. By winning all four diving events, Binghamton will have a slight advantage going into the swim portion of the championships.

The AE Swimming Championships will take place from Friday, April 23 to Sunday, April 25. The first day of the meet is set to begin at 2 p.m. in Newark, New Jersey.

“My first thought is extreme disappointment,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “We had a really good game plan going into the game.”

Under this year’s revised postseason format, the Hawks (3-1, 3-1 America East) clinched the AE Pod B title and one of four playoff spots. The Bearcats (2-4, 2-4 AE) will miss the postseason for the third time in four years.

The lone goal came in the 76th minute when Hartford’s senior midfielder Jovanté Etienne sent a through ball to sophomore forward Nadav Datner who tapped the ball into the lower-right corner of the net, escaping Binghamton’s defense and sophomore goalkeeper P.J. Parker.

“[Parker], I don’t know what more he could’ve done on the goal,” Marco said. “It’s a breakaway and [Datner] looks at the full goal and it’s just [Parker], so unless he hits it at him, he probably doesn’t make the save.”

After Datner’s goal put the Hawks up, the Bearcats had opportunities to equalize the score. Two shots were taken by sophomore midfielder Ethan Homler in the final five minutes of the game, but neither managed to go in. A volley from Homler looked promising, but it was blocked by a Hartford defender.

“We created enough chances to get a goal and we just didn’t put the ball in their goal,” Marco said. “The two volleys we had at the end of the game: one of them was on goal, and then the header we just missed wide, so we had enough chances to equalize after [Hartford’s] goal and we don’t get the goal, so disappointed.”

One factor that hurt the Bearcats in Friday’s game was the absence of sophomore defender Michael Bush, who missed the game due to injury.

“Does [Bush] help us in the back a little bit more with the goal we conceded,” Marco asked. “Maybe and obviously, we miss his presence — he’s a giant. Every team has to deal with injuries and guys who are available and unavailable, and I thought with the guys that we had on the field today we had enough quality in the team to get goals and we just didn’t.”

The Hawks outshot BU 8-5 with four of Hartford’s shots on goal. Homler and sophomore forward Dan Mansfield were the only Binghamton players to record shots. Between the two goalkeepers, Parker had one save in the second half and sophomore Mats Roorda had two in the first.

“I think our biggest piece for our goalkeepers right now is for somebody to step up and say ‘I am the number one’ and to be more consistent in their play,” Marco said. “I thought [Roorda] was very good in the first half with the wind at his face. He came and did the things he had to do … Both [Parker and Roorda] played their part.”

With the loss to Hartford, Binghamton’s 2021 season has come to an end. Marco said he hopes there’s a possibility that some nonconference matchups can be scheduled later in the semester to prepare the team for next fall’s regular season. There is one week remaining in the AE regular season to make up for canceled games, and the playoffs will begin in two weeks.

“Congratulations to Hartford,” Marco said. “They took an opportunity in a given moment and made a great goal.”

“I think people enjoy a routine, and I am certainly a routine person, but there was just so much monotony,” Giuliani said. “I literally had a script and you had to do your training sessions and teach and say the same thing off the script pretty much every day, so I was even cracking the same jokes at the same time every day.”

But Giuliani didn’t quit immediately. After making the decision to travel the world, he used the final year at his job to learn skills in photography, videography and writing at his local community college.

Prior to that point, his interest in travel began when he was a student at BU. As a former member of the varsity basketball team, Giuliani remembers looking out the window on his way to games.

“My love of traveling grew out of all the long bus rides we would take,” Giuliani said. “We would play in New Hampshire, New Jersey. We played in Florida once. I really felt I just enjoyed the camaraderie with my teammates and being on the bus and on the road almost more if not more than playing basketball.”

He chose Cape Town, South Africa as his starting point and flew there, marking the first and last time in his three-year journey that Giuliani used a plane. He almost exclusively used public transportation to cover all seven continents, using cargo ships to get across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and a cruise ship to get to Antarctica. Not utilizing air travel sometimes proved difficult, as Giuliani was in Uganda when there were warnings about terrorist activities, but he was determined to stick with his decision.

“There’s a terrorist group called Al-Shabaab and unfortunately they attacked and killed 140 people in a university called Garissa University which is in Kenya, and I had to take a bus directly through that region that week,” Giuliani said. “It wasn’t just the threat anymore, there was actual violence happening … that was a really seminal moment where I could’ve said ‘You know what? I’m going to forget this; I’m just going to fly to Ethiopia.’ I was following my dream to make it around the world, but it really became a mission at that point.”

Giuliani didn’t have a lot of money going into the trip, so he used a bartering system for the entire three years, never having to pay for a hotel room.

“Before I left, I emailed every hotel in Cape Town and I had this crazy offer, which I didn’t think anybody would accept,” Giuliani said. “I offered to do photos and a film of their hotel — their rooms, their restaurant, their pool — in exchange for room and board for the week. I had no experience in this; my portfolio was only practice shots on the beach.”

Giuliani emailed a hundred hotels in Cape Town, and the next day, three hotels replied and accepted his offer. He used this technique for the rest of the trip, and in every city, there was at least one hotel that accepted the offer.

During his journey, Giuliani created a travel blog called Travel Tall and decided that he wanted to try to write an ongoing book in the midst of traveling, labeling each post as a chapter. Once Giuliani came back to the United States, he turned all of those blog posts into his new book, “Sky’s the Limit: One Man’s 70,000 Mile Journey Around the World,” which became available on Amazon earlier this month.

“I always say [“Sky’s the Limit: One Man’s 70,000 Mile Journey Around the World”] is like “Eat, Pray, Love” meets Bear Grylls, so it’s kind of like this inner journey of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ not really spiritual but in a sense there’s some spiritual undertones and it’s kind of like this soul-searching, find yourself type of thing mixed with Bear Grylls who is that survivor-man type,” Giuliani said.

Since quitting his job, Giuliani has amassed more than 40,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram. Making that move was a big step for Giuliani, but it’s one he doesn’t regret. He confronted what he was truly curious and passionate about in life and urges everyone to do the same.

“Write down all the things you’re curious about,” Giuliani said. “I think the word curiosity is really important, and I would just start pursuing those things you’re really curious about. Maybe they don’t lead to anything or maybe they do and they lead to a deeper dream or deeper experience that you didn’t even know you were looking for.”

“Super pleased with our effort and competitiveness today,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey, per bubearcats.com. “We had guys step up, compete and grind out places today. We are in a great place as we keep getting a little better every day. It was great to honor our seniors today with wins against conference opponents. I’m very proud of how our team continues to be resilient through all the challenges this year has presented.”

For the seniors, it was the divers who led the way, as Sophia Howard won both boards for the women and David Walters did the same for the men. Against three teams, Howard has won every diving event thus far. She had scores of 246.00 and 258.30 in the one-meter and three-meter, respectively. Walters won the one-meter with a score of 262.12 and the three-meter with a score of 245.09. Fellow senior Erik Temple was right behind Walters, taking second in both events.

While it was Senior Day, it was the freshmen that brought Binghamton to the win. For the men, there were five freshmen who took first place finishes. Liam Murphy led the distance squad, winning both the 1000 free (9:50.91) and the 500 free (4:46.95). Murphy finished over 25 seconds before NJIT’s first finisher in the 1000.

For the sprinters, it was freshman Travis Phillips who secured wins in the 50 free (21.81) and the 100 free (47.73). Phillips and Murphy were also a part of the winning 400 freestyle relay team that included sophomore Justin Meyn and junior Ben Beldner and clocked in at 3:13.58.

Freshman Xiaoyu (Lewis) Lin won two events for BU on the day, and freshmen George Kipshidze and Henry Shemet also had first place finishes.

For the women’s team, freshman Courtney Moane continued her strong start to the season, winning all three of her events. She won the 100 breast with a time of 1:06.17, the 200 breast with a 2:24.34 and the 200 I.M. with a 2:12.97. Moane has yet to lose in the 100 and 200 breast this season, and was also part of the victorious 400 medley relay team. Sophomore Manuela Matkovic was a part of that winning relay team as well, and she also had two individual wins.

Up next for the Bearcats is a meet against Colgate. The event will take place on Saturday, March 27 in Hamilton, New York.

The Bearcats never broke 20 points against the Great Danes (7-1, 6-0 AE) on Sunday. The first set looked hopeful when a kill by freshman outside hitter Stefana Stan tied the score at 14. The Bearcats traded points with the Great Danes, but a kill by Albany’s sophomore middle blocker Noa Brach followed by a Binghamton ball handling error got the Great Danes going, and Albany secured the set 25-19. The Great Danes won the second and third sets 25-18 and 25-16, respectively.

The matchup against UMBC (5-2, 4-2 AE) was a closer contest for the Bearcats, as they lost 25-20, 25-22 and 25-21. In the second set, Binghamton and UMBC traded points throughout, but the Retrievers went on a four-point run that saw two kills from UMBC’s freshman outside hitter Darina Kumanova that BU couldn’t come back from. Kumanova and senior right-side hitter Anouk Van Noord combined for 35 points to lead the Retrievers to the win.

Against the Retrievers, senior outside hitter Francela Ulate led the charge for the Bearcats with a career-high five services aces, and she currently leads the AE in service aces. Over the course of Sunday’s matchups, Ulate contributed 18 kills. She went on to contribute another 19 kills and 25 digs against Hartford.

While Ulate was a significant contributor against the Hawks, it was Stan who led BU in kills with 31 over the course of the weekend. Her help came from sophomore setter Emma Rainville who had 64 assists in the two matches against Hartford.

After losing their first match against the Hawks 25-16, 25-22 and 25-20, the Bearcats won their first set of the season in their second match against Hartford. After losing the first game 25-17, Binghamton started out the second set trading points with the Hawks. A service error from Hartford gave BU the spark they needed. Two blocks from sophomore middle hitter Anna Sprys and a service ace from junior middle blocker Tyra Wilson put the Bearcats back in the game. The Hawks tried to climb back, but kills from Stan and Ulate late in the set secured BU’s first set win of the season.

BU went on to lose the third set 25-17, and Hartford came out strong in the fourth and final set. The Hawks were able to secure a 25-19 victory, defeating the Bearcats in four sets.

Up next for BU are matchups against New Hampshire and NJIT on Sunday, March 21 in Newark, New Jersey. First serve is set for 5 p.m. against UNH at the NJIT Wellness and Events Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“Being back and being able to compete was the primary focus and it’s very exciting in and of itself,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “Our level of competition and our ability to up our game from our inter-squad meet last week was awesome. It definitely felt weird to be back on deck but it was a good meet. They swam well, dove well and competed. Getting four wins at the end of that is exciting.”

On the women’s side, there were 19 top-three finishes, but it was freshman Courtney Moane, sophomore Audrey Pesek and senior Sophia Howard who paved the way for the Bearcats, winning two individual titles each. Howard swept the diving events, securing the three-meter dive with a score of 217.60 and the one-meter with a score of 210.80. According to Cummiskey, Moane has had limited training this season, but the freshman showcased her speed, winning the 100 breast and 200 breast with times of 1:07.95 and 2:28.95, respectively. Pesek dominated the 100 back and 100 fly with times of 58.29 and 59.21. Pesek was the clear-cut winner in the 100 back, as she was the only swimmer to finish in under a minute.

“[Pesek] had a really good swim in the medley relay to get us started and carried that into the 100 back and the 100 fly — she’s worked really hard to get there,” Cummiskey said. “[Moane] has been in and out of the pool so she had a really good day considering the training she’s got behind her right now, so we’re definitely excited about what she’s got to offer in the future. And [Howard’s] been a stud for us for three years now, so she had a great day and will continue to be really strong on the boards.”

Moane wasn’t the only freshman to secure first place finishes, as freshmen Kandice Chandra and Henry Shemet each won an individual title in their first collegiate meet. Chandra placed first in the 200 back with a time of 2:12.97 while Shemet just out-touched Niagara’s sophomore Kevin Vu with a time of 53.45.

“[Shemet] and [Chandra] are in similar situations as [Moane] training-wise,” Cummiskey said. “They’ve had ups and downs but when they’re in [the pool], they work hard and have done a good job with all the obstacles that have been in their way.”

Diving was one of the team’s greatest strength, as Howard captured two wins and the men’s team swept both the one and three-meter dives. Senior David Walters won the one-meter with a score of 237.40. Sophomore Ryan Cohn was right behind Walters with a score of 225.45, and senior Erik Temple finished the sweep in third with a score of 216.70. In the three-meter, Cohn was the winner with a score of 221.65. Walters took the second place finish and Temple the third with scores of 208.50 and 189.75, respectively.

“Diving is always a strength for us,” Cummiskey said. “It’s something that we rely on meet in and meet out. They’ve had a ton of success. We’ve had some divers injured that we look forward to having back, but [diving coach] Heather [Colby] has done a great job of leading them and continuing to work through things. They’ve had the same ups and downs on the boards and off. They work hard and they’ve done a good job of getting to where they are right now and I have no doubt that they’re going to continue to get better.”

Men’s swimmers including sophomore Justin Meyn and junior Brian Harding were also significant contributors to the wins against Niagara and Canisius. Meyn won the 100 free with a time of 47.68 and Harding secured the 200 back with a time of 1:57.85. Both Meyn and Harding were top eight finishers in each of these events in last year’s America East (AE) Championship.

“[Meyn’s] one of our top sprinters and we rely on him in the 50 [free] and the 100 [free] and a lot of other places,” Cummiskey said. “He works hard and wants to continue to get better, so we expect big things from him. I think he’ll take a big jump here to really compete to win some events at the conference level. [Harding] winning the 200 back, I think that was probably his best in-season dual meet time ever. He just had a great swim and really started to put some things together. He works extremely hard so it’s really nice to see that pay off for him.”

Other first place finishers included senior Kaitlyn Smolar in the 500 free (5:19.44), sophomore Jackson Homan in the 200 fly (1:56.35) and the men’s 200 medley relay quartet of senior Shane Morris, junior Ryan Board, freshman Travis Phillips and junior Ben Beldner (1:34.85).

Up next for the men’s team is a home meet against NJIT. The meet will begin at 11 a.m., and the women will take on Stony Brook right after at 3 p.m. Both meets will take place in the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center at the West Gym in Vestal, New York.

“I was overjoyed,” Bowman said. “I was surprised, but it felt like a great accomplishment. I do believe that my hard work did pay off, but I have my team and my coaches to thank for that because I wouldn’t have gotten that award without them.”

After the season was suspended early due to COVID-19 protocols, Bowman finished her sophomore year ranked fourth in the AE in both scoring and steals, averaging 12.9 points and 2.0 steals per game. Last season, she averaged 6.6 points and .9 steals per game. Bowman almost doubled her scoring average in just one year. She attributes her increased success to spending her free time in the gym and stepping into a leadership role.

“I just stayed in the gym, working on things I didn’t work on the previous year and things that I thought I needed to work on,” Bowman said. “Also, I really needed to step into that leadership role because we did lose a lot of leaders, so it gave me that courage and momentum to do more for my team.”

One of the leaders that the Bearcats lost to graduation was guard Kai Moon, who was last year’s AE Player of the Year. Moon was also named to the first-team all-conference and the all-defensive team in 2020. Just a sophomore, Bowman is following in Moon’s footsteps, as she already has two of these accolades to her name.

“It’s great to just be thought of on that level — I hold [Moon] very highly,” Bowman said. “She definitely played a big role in how I developed throughout the season. She was always texting me before and after every game, so just to get those same awards that she got means a lot to me and I definitely think it raised my confidence level.”

As Moon and guards Carly Boland and Karlee Krchnavi were lost to graduation in 2020, the Bearcats had just one senior on the active roster this season, forward Kaylee Wasco, to help Bowman lead the team. Wasco was also honored by the AE, as she was named to the all-academic team with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

“[Wasco] definitely did a great job of leading the team as well,” Bowman said. “She really spoke up in practice. She taught me how to communicate and deliver a message to certain people because everyone doesn’t receive the same message in the same way. She really shaped me into a better leader.”

Bowman was on a roll when the season was canceled due to “late-season positive test results and subsequent quarantine requirements,” as she just had one of the best games of her career. Up against Albany’s Great Danes on Feb. 7, Bowman scored 21 points, secured a career-high 13 rebounds and garnered four steals.

“I was a little disappointed [when the season got canceled] but at the same time we’re living in very hard times, so I kind of had to accept it quickly and roll with the punches,” Bowman said. “How I got through it was having that mindset of ‘OK, now I have more time to work in the postseason for next year.’”

The young team ended the season with a 5-11 overall record and a 5-9 conference record, but the Bearcats will only lose Wasco to graduation and four out of five starters will return to the court next season.

“I want to continue to grow with my team, becoming more of a vocal leader, hopefully getting more awards and getting my teammates some accolades,” Bowman said.

“When everyone took a moment off, [Bush] and I didn’t,” Luescher said. “Those moments can make or break a game. I was alone in front of the goalkeeper and just put it in the back of the net.”

The team celebrated after Luescher scored his first goal of the season, but he didn’t stop there. After Albany’s junior midfielder Haflidi Sigurdarson tied the score in the 59th minute off of a corner kick, Luescher was fouled right outside of the 18-yard box and awarded a free kick. As he has done so many times, he fired the ball into the upper-right corner of the net, starting his senior year off with two goals and giving Binghamton a 2-1 win over the Great Danes (0-1-1, 0-1-0 AE).

“The second [goal] was hours and hours of training and practicing for that free kick, and it shows off in the games,” Luescher said. “It’s just a great feeling when the ball goes in the back of the net. It’s indescribable.”

In season opening games, Luescher has five goals to his name in his four years with the Bearcats (1-0-0, 1-0-0 AE). In the 2019 season opener against Drexel, Luescher scored two goals, both off of free kicks.

“[Luescher’s] a special player,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “He can turn nothing into something, and he did that today twice. He had two outstanding goals – one in the run of the playoff, a quick throw-in and the [other a] set piece. He’s very dangerous on [set pieces]. He’s been very good for us. Just as good as he is on the field and the run of play and on set pieces, he’s been that good of a leader for our team too.”

While Luescher was the only Bearcat to score, redshirt junior midfielder Lucas Arzan had a shot on goal in the 75th minute that was saved by Albany’s goalkeeper.

On the defensive end, Bush, who assisted Luescher’s first goal, has an increased role this season. After defender Stephen McKenna graduated last spring, Bush is now leading the back four. Only a sophomore, he is taking on an important responsibility for the back end.

“The back four led by Bush were terrific,” Marco said. “I thought all four of them played really really well, and they’re young, so there’s a lot to come in the future from that group.”

Marco was also impressed with the goalies, sophomore Mats Roorda and redshirt sophomore P.J. Parker. The pair split the game, and each keeper had a save.

With 475 days since the team’s last game due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marco seems excited that his players have finally gotten the opportunity to compete.

“I’m just thrilled that we got to play today,” Marco said. “With all that’s been going on in the world and college athletics starting back up, I’m just excited that we got to play today and the guys put in a terrific performance. I’m really proud of them.”

The Bearcats will look to secure another win this Friday, March 5 against NJIT. The last time BU took on the Highlanders was in 1999 before Binghamton was a Division I school. After joining the AE this season, NJIT will be competitors for years to come.

The game is set to begin at 5 p.m. at Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.

“We obviously want to do better than last year,” said Binghamton head coach Glenn Kiriyama. “We want to compete well with every team in conference this year and hopefully place pretty well in conference, in the top half.”

The team went 0-23 last season and has not won a match since Nov. 4, 2018. However, the team lost just two seniors to graduation — and there are some strong players on the roster. One of their seniors is outside hitter Francela Ulate, who Kiriyama believes will be the team’s most powerful outside hitter on the court. Last season, Ulate was ranked first in the AE in service aces and 10th in the nation. She was also 10th in the AE in kills.

“[Ulate’s] improved quite a bit,” Kiriyama said. “She’s come in in good shape and she’s strong right now. She’s probably our best outside hitter and she puts a lot of heat on the ball. I feel like she’ll be one of the top hitters in conference this year, and I think she’ll play a major role for how successful we are.”

There are also three new freshmen on the roster: setter Jessie Bilello, right side hitter Stephanie Gatto and outside hitter Stefana Stan.

“One is an outside hitter, [Stan], and she’s going to be a heavy contributor for us this season,” Kiriyama said. “She’s a nice outsider hitter, comes from outside the Albany area and she can put some heat on the ball so we’re looking forward to having her compete.”

With all of the coronavirus restrictions in place, sophomore defensive specialist Regon Kennedy said that last semester the team was practicing in pods, but now they are able to practice as a whole unit and flow better together.

“There’s a lot more restrictions on what we can and can’t do,” Kennedy said. “We came into the semester early which would’ve normally happened in the fall, so we’ve been able to practice together as a team which is lucky.”

COVID-19 restrictions also mean that there are significant changes to scheduling. Just 12 games will be played and the schedule will consist of entirely of AE opponents. The team will play two games in one day, competing once a week.

”Our season is a little bit different in that we play two games in one day,” Kiriyama said. “We haven’t done that in conference before, but we’ve done it in preseason quite a few times, so it’s not [that] they’re not used to [it], but it does wear on you. That’ll be interesting to see how teams adjust to each other.”

The first team that BU will take on is the University of Hartford. The team hasn’t beat the Hawks since 2017, but they’re hoping to change that this weekend.

“This year is a lot more hectic,” Kiriyama said. “They had a long break and we didn’t get a lot of practice in in the fall, but these last three, four weeks we’ve been able to get a lot of practice in. We’re hopeful that they’ll be ready this weekend. We’ve got a little ways to go, but I think we’ll be able to show pretty well.”

The matchups against Hartford will take place on Friday, Feb. 26. The first serve is scheduled for 12 p.m. at the Reich Family Pavilion in West Hartford, Connecticut.

McHugh, a senior majoring in computer science and a captain on the Binghamton University swimming and diving team, used her frustration to create her own website called VaxxTrackNJ.com, which automatically tracks vaccine appointments in Central New Jersey.

“I realized that it could be done much faster via computer,” McHugh said. “I had the skills to build the solution, and I knew it would help people.”

The app currently serves Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties. VaxxTrackNJ.com also has a Twitter counterpart: @vaxxtracknj. According to McHugh, prior experience served her well in expediting a solution to her problem.

“The thing that I built is called [a] web crawler, and I had already had experience building web crawlers and doing web scrapings — pulling information from websites — so I knew the solution to this would not take that long,” McHugh said.

According to McHugh, there is just one other centralized vaccination site for New Jersey residents. However, the site is only a centralized list of websites that the user has to manually check. McHugh’s website automatically scans the portals of vaccine websites for openings and key words.

“It’s up to you to spend all of your time clicking and clicking and clicking through dozens of websites [on the other vaccination website],” McHugh said. “In my opinion, they’re not doing a good job of making it a centralized, unique experience for users and that’s why using services like VaxxTrackNJ and other Twitter accounts that are tweeting out manual updates have such a large community response because the government has done such a poor job.”

In order to maintain VaxxTrackNJ, McHugh dedicates two to four hours a day to her website, volunteering her time and skills to serve her community while also balancing her commitment as a student-athlete. McHugh’s current plan is to expand her services to other New Jersey counties while continually improving the website.

While McHugh now has a passion for computer science and utilizing those skills for the benefit of others, she originally started as a biomedical engineering major at BU.

“I took physics and hated it and did terribly and realized that engineering is all physics, so I knew I needed a change,” McHugh said. “At the same time, I took a coding class through engineering and I really liked it. Biomedical engineering is a really niche major that puts you in a specific career path while computer science is the opposite and you can kind of do whatever you want and that’s what attracted me to it.”

The head of the computer science department told McHugh that the department typically admits between two and three transfer students per year, but she was determined to be one of those students.

“Computer science is the hardest major to transfer to at [BU] so I basically spent the entire summer calling the head of computer science every single day and telling her how much I wanted to be in the major and what I had done to teach myself Python, which is what I used to create this website,” McHugh said. “I was basically just trying to pitch myself to the program and I eventually was admitted.”

After McHugh got the word out about her website, she was invited onto the Fox 5 New York morning show.

“When I first started the website, I just posted it on Facebook groups,” McHugh said. “Someone messaged me in one of those Facebook groups and was like ‘Hi, I’m a producer at Fox 5 [New York]. We’d love to have you on the show.’”

McHugh initially thought that the invitation was a scam and it wasn’t until she looked into the producer’s profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook that she realized the invitation was real.

“It was kind of surreal, but I’m a huge extrovert, so it wasn’t as stressful as it could have been and I had a fun experience doing it,” McHugh said. “The most stressful part was finishing the interview and we went from around 500 to 1,200 users in two hours, and the site was just absolutely blowing up.”

“I’m really very lucky and grateful that I’ve had this opportunity to coach her and be a part of her growth,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “I want her to be ready for the world when she leaves here, and I know she’s going to do amazing things.”

The pregame ceremony saw an emotional video from Wasco’s parents, who were not allowed to be at the game due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“Everyone kept apologizing that my senior day was so different, but it was perfect because I got to have one,” Wasco said. “My parents don’t have to physically be here for me to feel the pride that they have for me.”

After losing 43-38 to the Great Danes (6-8, 5-5 America East) the day before, the win was exactly what the team needed. Wasco herself poured in nine points to help the team secure the win. The day before she was the Bearcats’ lead scorer, totaling 13 points.

After getting into foul trouble during her senior game, Wasco’s teammates stepped up in a big way. The Bearcats (5-11, 5-9 AE) scored 36 points in the first half, their highest-scoring half of the year, and just two points less than their total the day before. BU was up by as much as 12 points in the first half.

On Saturday, Albany’s junior guard Ellen Hahne took off, adding six points in the fourth and 15 in total to help the Great Danes defeat Binghamton 43-38. She came back with 14 points the next day to lead her team once again, but the Bearcats were able to hold her to three points in the fourth before she fouled out.

With just eight players dressed over the course of the weekend, four players contributed 30 minutes or more per game. Junior guard Hanna Strawn was on crutches, with Shapiro Ord confirming her injury. There were just 10 players on the bench in total, and the absence of the other teammates was unexplained, but Shapiro Ord said that the reasons were unrelated to COVID-19 restrictions.

Sophomore guard Denai Bowman was one of the players who contributed over 30 minutes and played the entire 40 minutes on Sunday. She was a major contributor for Binghamton, as she had her first double-double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 boards — a career-high. She also added four steals. Bowman ranks fourth in the AE in scoring, averaging 12.9 points per game, and third in steals.

“[Bowman] knew what she had to do,” Shapiro Ord said. “She led us with 13 boards. She had the 21 points. She knocked down her free throws. She knows what this team can do, and she knows how much of her impact that has to be.”

Sophomore guard Cassidy Roberts also had a career-high game, scoring 11 points for BU. While Shapiro Ord was impressed with her ability to score, she thought the area where Roberts excelled was in assisting her teammates.

“[Roberts] had five assists and four turnovers, so it’s a positive assist to turnover ratio, which we talk about all the time,” Shapiro Ord said. “It’s so important as a point guard to put your teammates into position to be successful, and she did. She did a great job.”

In addition to Bowman and Roberts, Shapiro Ord was impressed with junior guard Hayley Moore, who netted 10 points and held the Great Danes’ senior guard Kyara Frames, who Shapiro Ord called Albany’s best player, to just two points.

“[Moore] did a tremendous job defensively,” Shapiro Ord said. “If you asked me when she first got here if she would’ve been a defensive stopper, I’d say, ‘Get out of here.’ She has become an unbelievable defensive stopper. She has bruises up and down the sides of her body from all the hits she’s taken, but she just gutted it out, and I’m so proud of her.”

Next up for BU is two matchups against NJIT on Saturday, Feb. 13 and Sunday, Feb. 14. Tipoff for Saturday’s game is set for 2 p.m. at the NJIT Wellness and Events Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“You have to play 40 minutes against this team,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “Maine’s a very good team — there’s a reason why they’re in first place.”

Despite the disparity in the final scores, there were periods throughout both games where the competition was tight. On Saturday, the Bearcats (4-10, 4-8 AE) had their lowest-scoring game of the season losing 67-46, but they rivaled the Black Bears (12-1, 9-1 AE) early on in the game. After the first half, BU was down by just three points, and they managed to hold the highest-scoring player in the AE, redshirt senior guard Blanca Millan, to just three points.

By the end of the game, Millan tallied 20 points, but she wasn’t the Black Bears’ lead scorer. Sophomore guard Anne Simon, last season’s AE Rookie of the Year, racked up 22 points. Last season, Simon scored a career-high 28 points and capitalized on turnovers in a similar manner against Binghamton.

“It’s not just [Millan] and [senior guard Dor Saar] who score, as you can see, and Simon did what she did to us last year tonight,” Shapiro Ord said. “We weren’t just focused on those two. You can’t be.”

The Black Bears went on a tear to start the second half, outscoring Binghamton 43-25 in the second half and earning a 67-46 win.

Despite losing again on Sunday, the Bearcats had the highest scorer on the court, as sophomore guard Birna Benonysdottir scored 18 points in just 20 minutes of play before fouling out.

“Our mindset was attack and that was [Benonysdottir’s] mindset today, which was great,” Shapiro Ord said. “She didn’t just settle for threes. She went to the basket. She posted up. We got her inside out. She was battling.”

The Bearcats were able to keep the game closer in the second half than in the previous game, in large part to Benonysdottir’s effort. In the second half, it was sophomore guard Denai Bowman who led BU, finishing the game with 15 points despite being held to two in the first half.

Despite BU having two strong performances in scoring, Maine’s roster is deep and it’s not just Millan and Simon who are doing the scoring. Saar and senior forward Maeve Carroll were also key contributors on both days, including Sunday’s 70-53 win by Maine.

“You can’t just trade baskets with a team like that, especially when you’re trying to come back and that’s what I think we did,” Shapiro Ord said.

With the AE just a month away from the expected conclusion of its regular season, the league and its institutions are dealing with the most COVID-19 interruptions yet. As the season winds down, one team in the AE will no longer be competing. The Vermont women’s basketball team announced Sunday that their student-athletes decided to end their season, following a lengthy layoff due to positive test results within the program. The Catamounts had played just six games and hadn’t played Binghamton yet. It remains to be seen if any changes will be made to the conference schedule or standings as a result. The UVM men’s basketball team is unaffected by the decision.

“It’s whatever’s best for each program and if that’s what they feel like doing for safety reasons then that’s what has to happen,” Shapiro Ord said. “It’s just different times right now.”

Following Sunday’s game, the AE announced a revised schedule for the next two weeks. Binghamton will be off next weekend prior to returning to action the following week.

“I told them we gotta learn from today from this weekend and we gotta focus forward and continue to get in the gym and get better,” Shapiro Ord said. “One thing this team’s been doing is getting in watching film, getting in the gym, getting shots up. You probably know which ones are always in the gym because they’re out there the most.”

The Bearcats will play NJIT on Saturday, Feb. 6 and Sunday, Feb. 7 at the NJIT Wellness and Events Center in Newark, New Jersey. The start times will be determined in the coming days.

“We want to have the ball in [Bowman’s] hands at the end of the game and we know she’s gonna attack and explode up over the defense,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “What makes her do that is her heart, her intensity.”

After the ensuing media timeout, the Bearcats played strong defense, only allowing one field goal by the Hawks for the remainder of the game, and Bowman iced the game with back-to-back layups, solidifying the team’s 52-44 comeback win and tying her career best of 22 points.

“Play smart, play hard and play together — that’s all I ask them to do,” Shapiro Ord said. “They brought great energy. We had to stay disciplined in our defense and [we] did.”

Last season, Hartford (3-3, 3-3 America East) almost had a completely winless season, earning its only victory in the final game of the year, and the Bearcats (2-6, 2-4 AE) blew out the Hawks both times the teams played. However, Hartford is finding its footing in this year’s campaign, as it earned its third win of the season on Saturday, handing the Bearcats a 64-54 loss in the first meeting.

“I told the team and I told a lot of people, the Hartford team is much improved with their new players,” Shapiro Ord said. “They did a really good job with our bigs inside, and we didn’t get those looks like we needed to.”

Hartford’s senior forward Breyenne Bellerand, senior guard Jada Lucas and junior forward Sierra Smith were a triple threat, as Bellerand scored 16 points while Lucas had 13. Defensively, Smith had an excellent day on the boards with 21 rebounds. On Sunday, Smith recorded 13 rebounds and nine points.

“We didn’t outrebound them, but that’s a very good Hartford team with the rebounding and [Smith] backing up another double-digit performance in rebounding,” Shapiro Ord said. “She did a tremendous job on the boards.”

For the Bearcats, it was senior forward Kaylee Wasco who led the charge on Saturday with 13 points and 11 rebounds, the second double-double of her career.

“Wasco is a very strong player that should get double-doubles every night,” Shapiro Ord said. “She wants to have the best last year and she’s been a leader as well during practice and games.”

While sophomore forward Birna Benonysdottir had 10 points and sophomore guard Clare Traeger had 11 rebounds and nine points on Saturday, sophomore forward Destiny Samuel was the only other player to have a double-double, the first of her career in her eighth game at BU. She scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds in the 64-54 loss.

“I love [Samuel’s] energy,” Shapiro Ord said. “Sometimes [Samuel] gets a little hectic, but when she’s just shooting and floating into it and she’s not thinking about it, things flow pretty well for her.”

Going into Sunday’s game, there was a crucial component that the Bearcats needed to change: their third quarter. The third quarter has been a major struggle for BU this season, as their last four performances in the third have only seen single-digit scoring, including Saturday’s game where the team recorded just six points. Shapiro Ord said that they decided to change the lineup in the third, and BU was able to get out of this rut. They scored 16 points — the most out of every other quarter.

“We threw in a very athletic group and we just tried to shake them up instead of just letting them come,” Shapiro Ord said. “We tried to dictate a little and we got some stops and it was just something to really spark us and it worked. We kept our composure where they did not and we stayed disciplined on our defense and it didn’t bother us and that was really in that third quarter.”

Although Bowman was the star of Sunday’s game with her 22-point effort, Shapiro Ord said that the biggest reason BU won was the team’s harmony.

“Everybody has to play together, and that’s what we did,” Shapiro Ord said. “It was really a team effort, and I thought that was a big part of why we were so successful in the end.”

After splitting the series with Hartford, Binghamton is set to take on Vermont next weekend. Tipoff for the first game is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9 at the Patrick Gym in Burlington, Vermont.

“[Benonysdottir] is a very dynamic player that can do a lot, and when she sets her mind to it… scary,” said BU head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord.

The transfer from Pac-12 member Arizona had a breakout game on Monday in just the second start of her Binghamton career, powering the Bearcats to their first win (1-5, 1-3 AE) of the season and a series split against the Retrievers (2-4, 2-2 AE).

Prior to Monday’s victory, Bowman and senior forward Kaylee Wasco were leaders for the Bearcats in Sunday afternoon’s loss, as Bowman ended the night with 18 points and a career-high nine rebounds while Wasco had her first career double-double, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“[Wasco’s] been working really hard and being the only senior on this very young team I ask a lot from her,” Shapiro Ord said. “Both [Bowman] and Wasco are my go-to players. [Bowman’s] always going to stop one of their best players and also attack on the offensive end. She brings so much energy for us.”

UMBC’s graduate student forward Juliet Esadah was the only player other than Wasco to secure a double-double with 19 points and 12 boards. Esadah had both the most points and rebounds out of any player on the court. Another force for the Retrievers was junior guard Kasey Gagan who hit four 3-pointers and ended the night with 16 points.

Bowman and Wasco were once again integral players in Monday’s game, as Bowman scored nine points while Wasco had 12, but Benonysdottir was the key. Benonysdottir not only contributed 22 points, but also seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

One of the major game changers between Sunday and Monday’s matchups was free throws. BU went just 3-11 on free throws in its first game, but was able to convert 23 of 29 free throws the next day, from 27 percent to 79 percent. Two major contributors in this area were Benonysdottir, who made eight of nine free throws, and sophomore guard Cassidy Roberts, who went six-for-six from the line in her first career start and scored a career-high of eight points on Monday.

“We switched the starting lineup, and we did it because we got a better matchup, and I thought we’d be harder to guard as well,” Shapiro Ord said. “I switched [Roberts] and [sophomore guard Zahra Barnes] out. Both are tremendous point guards for us and they both give a little bit different.”

In both games, BU struggled in the third quarter, coming up with just five points on Sunday and nine on Monday. Both times the Bearcats bounced back in the final quarter, but according to Shapiro Ord, the difference between Sunday and Monday’s fourth quarters was squashing UMBC’s second-chance opportunities. The Retrievers had 18 offensive rebounds on Monday, but just three came in the fourth quarter.

“They knew [going into the fourth quarter] that this is it,” Shapiro Ord said. “We went into that timeout, that huddle, and I said, ‘No second-chance opportunities for them.’ They really gritted it out and I’m so proud of them, I really am. They knew giving [UMBC] extra opportunities was going to be the difference.”

After splitting the series with UMBC and garnering their first win, the Bearcats will host Hartford next week on Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3. Tipoff for the first game is set for 3 p.m. at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.

“We’ll get better,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “That was a great test. It was great to play somebody else. It’s not a typical year, so we just gotta stay positive as far as your mindset and doing the right things on and off the court.”

The first quarter was evenly matched. Sophomore guard Denai Bowman got the game started with a layup, which was immediately countered by Fairleigh Dickinson’s sophomore forward Maria Roters. The first period mostly followed this pattern, and Binghamton ultimately came out on top 22-20. Within this quarter, six Bearcats contributed points, but the tone of the game quickly changed, and the Knights stole the game away from Binghamton, creating a gap as big as 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“[Farleigh Dickinson] did whatever they wanted on offense, and we just couldn’t get stops,” Shapiro Ord said.

While the Bearcats slightly out-rebounded the Knights, their turnovers caught up, as Binghamton had 19 turnovers while FDU had just eight.

“There were too many turnovers that were unforced — there shouldn’t have been,” Shapiro Ord said. “We did a decent job on the rebounding end when we could finish.”

Despite the loss, this was the youngest team to ever start for BU according to Shapiro Ord. She said that with such a young team, she is pleased with the outcome. Even with a disadvantage in experience, the Bearcats managed to have the highest-scoring player on the court. Bowman posted 22 points, shattering her career high of 14. Last season, Bowman contributed significant minutes and points for the Bearcats off the bench, but now she is expected to be one of the team’s main contributors.

“[Bowman’s] starting to realize that she’s gonna have to score points for us to be successful,” Shapiro Ord said. “You know, she doesn’t have to drop 30, but I would love that … She did a tremendous job.”

While Bowman contributed 40 percent of the team’s points, sophomore guard Clare Traeger had just under 40 percent of the team’s rebounds. She had a career-high 11 rebounds and was the only player on the court to make it to double digits in boards.

Shapiro Ord said that she was also pleased with the team’s only freshman, forward Elena Delicado, who had six points and four rebounds in her first collegiate career game.

“I was happy with our freshman, [Delicado],” Shapiro Ord said. “This is the first time she’s ever played four quarters. Her eyes were really wide even though there were no fans. Lucky for her, I guess, that might have been worse if we had our typical fans.”

The Bearcats also lost sophomore guard Khoryn Bannis to an injury after playing for just one minute in the first quarter. In addition to this, senior forward Kaylee Wasco, one of the team’s starters who averaged 5.2 points last season, did not play in the game. The senior was out due to protocols surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s protocols coming back from quarantine and she was just going through protocols, so we’re hopeful for her to be back,” Shapiro Ord said.

On FDU’s side there were five players who scored in double digits. Leading the charge was sophomore forward Sierra DeAngelo with 17 points, while freshman forward Chloe Wilson had 15 points and freshman guard Taylor Crystian had 13. Other than those five, no Knights player had more than one point in the game.

Next up for the Bearcats is a game on the road against Niagara on Saturday. With the nonconference scheduling chaos caused by the pandemic, the matchup was announced just after Wednesday’s game went final. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at the Gallagher Center in Lewiston, New York.

With last season’s starting five consisting of veterans, Traeger wasn’t able to see the court all that much. But with all five starters gone, Traeger wants to fill the shoes of guard Karlee Krchnavi, ‘20.

“I want to do the dirty work,” Traeger said. “I want to do things like KK, [Krchnavi], did, so for me, that’s kind of my role. I’m a very loud person and a loud player.”

Not only does Traeger want to emulate Krchnavi’s style, but she also wants to take on a bigger leadership role.

“I think with all [the seniors and transfers] leaving we definitely have to take bigger roles and step up,” Traeger said. “We don’t have a big senior class. We have [senior guard] Lizzy [Spindler] and [senior forward] Kaylee Wasco, but other players have to step up.”

Despite all five starters leaving, Traeger thinks that with all the returning players and new additions, the team will have success in the 2020-21 season. She said the new players are adjusting well and cited their chemistry as a reason for optimism.

“The players on the court, since we have great chemistry off the court, you know on the court, it’s easy,” Traeger said. “It’s different. It’s different styles of playing than we had in the past, but I think we’re meshing well. Especially now, we’re just taking every practice as if it’s our last and making the most of it. I think every player gives their all.”

She also holds the coaching staff in high esteem. Traeger said that the coaches helped mold her from the player she was last year to the player she is now not just physically, but also mentally.

“The staff is great,” Traeger said. “They really built me from the player I was last year to the player I am today. I think that both on and off the court my mental aspect of the game, the coaches have really helped me with that and it’s really different coming from high school to college basketball, so they really groomed me. I love the coaching staff, they’re really nice — they really care about us as players and as people, so that’s really important to me. You can see it in just everyday stuff that we do.”

Coming to Binghamton to play basketball was an easy decision for Traeger. She said that BU really cares about the basketball community and pushing its students academically. Being from Texas, where the main sport is football, Traeger also likes the emphasis that Binghamton puts on basketball.

“I chose Binghamton primarily because of the family atmosphere, and I just loved the team the moment I came,” Traeger said. “They just made me feel like it would be a second home for me, especially coming from Texas, so that and the great academics. I wanted a place that would push me both on the court and off the court.”

Traeger knows that this season will look significantly different from years past, but she is determined to stay positive. She thinks that one of the most important things the team can do is to remain optimistic.

“We’ve done a lot of mental training, so a lot of things off the court that we could control,” Traeger said. “The coaches always say, ‘We can only control the controllables.’ During this time, we’re very careful. We don’t want to get sick. We’re just taking every precaution and doing everything we can to stay safe because we all want to play.”

“I got as close to winning without actually winning because finals went to the final game, game five,” Ahr said. “In the Swiss bracket I actually beat the eventual winner, but in the rematch, I lost.”

In an interview with the tournament commentators on Twitch, Goober707 said that he lost in the Swiss bracket against Ahr, who goes by the gamer tag Rawk, because he couldn’t nail his recovery back to the stage.

“I can’t go on autopilot [with Ahr],” Goober707 said. “I have to think about how I want to recover, how I want to land on him because upbeat on his shield is really good and it’s a constant thinking process. This time, what was different from yesterday was mainly I wanted to focus on how to recover back to stage … that was my main deal. It was stopping him from planting bombs at ledge.”

Ahr plays as the character Dark Samus and said that his character has difficulty against Goober707’s character, Toon Link, as Dark Samus uses projectiles that are completely countered by Toon Link’s projectiles.

“[Goober707] converted off of all of his opportunities really well,” Ahr said. “His neutral game was good, which is when two players are on an equal playing field and you’re feeling each other out. I didn’t see a lot of weakness — it was mostly just that there are about 80 characters in the game and my character does poorly against his character.”

Prior to the final matchup, Ahr was worried about taking on NJIT’s Hunk in the semifinals. Ahr said that Hunk’s character, Captain Olimar, has a play style that completely counteracts Dark Samus.

“I’d never played [Hunk] before, so I didn’t really know much about his playing style, but I knew he must be good because he went 4-0 in the Swiss bracket,” Ahr said. “So I basically had to get help from friends to find out what to do against his character, [Captain] Olimar, and every single game was down to the wire.”

Ahr, however, wasn’t the only Bearcat to make it to the final eight. Adam Guarino, a senior majoring in biology, who goes by the gamer tag Cr4sh, qualified but was defeated by UAlbany’s Pershado in the quarterfinals.

Like the previous AE Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament, a single elimination bracket was utilized even though double elimination is the standard. Ahr said that he has problems with the single elimination bracket and that the tournament would benefit overall if the organizers followed the standard procedures, allowing competitors to be better seeded.

“They introduced a Swiss bracket which chess tournaments use, but the problem is [chess tournaments] have a rating system — this was just randomly seeded so that kind of didn’t help in the single-elimination bracket,” Ahr said. “There were seven sets played, and out of them, six of them were won by the lower seed, which I think shows that the seeding is still very subpar. Double elimination is usually better. It’s been the standard since 20 years ago when [Super Smash Bros. Ultimate] tournaments started. It gives you more time to adapt to your opponents and you don’t just get one opportunity if you mess up in a best of three or best of five.”

While the AE has hosted esports tournaments in the past two academic years, esports is not recognized as an official varsity sport at Binghamton. However, with its growing popularity and more universities creating teams, including Albany and Hartford, Ahr believes that a University-run esports team could surface at BU.

After a promising freshman year with the Binghamton women’s basketball team, guard Denai Bowman is ready to step into an increased role as she begins her sophomore season with the program. She was the fourth-highest scorer on the team with 6.6 points per game and was third in steals, ending the season with 27 total.

Prior to her freshman success at Binghamton, Bowman began playing basketball at a young age but temporarily stopped to play travel soccer, returning to the sport in middle school and finding a passion for it. Since she’s been a Bearcat, Bowman has welcomed competition.

“The competition and the mentality are much different [from high school],” Bowman said. “The girls are stronger, faster, so you have to be here to compete.”

Bowman was also named the America East (AE) Rookie of the Week on Nov. 20, reached double figures in scoring eight times and maintained a GPA of 3.3 or higher for both semesters.

Last season, three key seniors, guards Kai Moon, Carly Boland and Karlee Krchnavi, graduated and two players transferred. Bowman, who was one of the youngest members of the team, is now taking on a newfound leadership role this season.

“We had great leadership players [last season], so I was just trying to keep up with them and do what I can and playing the best game possible,” Bowman said. “There’s a lot of stepping up that I have to do because of all the people that graduated and the people that transferred, so I definitely have a bigger role to play this season.”

After reaching the AE semifinals last season as a reserve player, Bowman will be stepping into a starting role as she looks to lead this year’s team to the playoffs.

“I’m definitely the type to show you how to work hard,” Bowman said. “My work ethic is what I do and how I lead my team. I’m not an outspoken person, so I just do what I can through my actions, and I try to help my teammates feel inspired by that. To motivate them, I cheer them on and tell them to lift their heads up and just try to keep their confidence high.”

As the Bearcats’ top returning player, Bowman said she is up to the challenge of motivating and leading her teammates during the pandemic.

“I think this season is going to be very interesting, playing back to back,” Bowman said. “It might be challenging to try to adjust, but you just have to go with it.”

Not only does the schedule have a new look this season, but the team does as well, as three new transfers and one freshman joined this season’s roster. Bowman said that the newcomers are adapting well to collegiate basketball, continually taking initiative and responding well to the coaches. She wants this season to be less about developing herself as an individual player and more about establishing chemistry with her teammates both on and off the court.

“My team goal is to establish a connection with my new teammates because we are basically a new team,” Bowman said. “We have a lot of new good transfers. I want to establish that chemistry on and off the court so we can grow as a team because we are fairly young and just win, give it our all, get better every day.”

“We were having a conversation and the next thing I remember saying was, ‘stop,’ and, ‘no,’ and him saying, ‘Just take it,’” Ware told the Burlington Free Press. “I just remember having the thought of, ‘I can’t believe he just did this.’”

Ware said that the player raped her. 30 days after the alleged assault, Ware filed a complaint to UVM in the hopes that they would investigate. In between the 30 days, Ware said she had suicidal thoughts.

“I had completely broken down and I had thoughts of driving to the New York border and jumping off [the Lake Champlain Bridge],” Ware said.

According to the Burlington Free Press, Ware began taking anti-anxiety medication after the assault, and five of her teammates them submitted C.A.R.E. forms — the school’s resource for reporting a “Concerning And/or Risky Event” — on Ware’s behalf through UVM’s online reporting portal.

When Ware was ready to report the incident, she said that instead of being helped, she was misguided by the school. When she met with a Title IX investigator who works for the University’s Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunities (AAEO), she was given two options: a formal or informal route. The informal route was an attempt by AAEO to resolve the matter without a formal investigation. It required both parties to voluntarily agree to enter, and a disciplinary process is not part of the informal resolution, according to UVM policy. The formal route included an investigation and would take approximately 60 days to complete. If the person is found responsible, disciplinary action is taken and there could be appeals.

After hearing her options, Ware decided to go with the formal route and informed UVM Athletic Director Jeff Schulman, associate athletics director for external relations and communications and team adviser Krista Balogh and other senior administrators. Shortly after, Ware received a call from an AAEO administrator asking her to rethink her decision.

“They said it didn’t sound like I knew what I wanted and that it didn’t seem like a formal investigation was what I wanted,” Ware said.

The next day, Ware met with Balogh and an AAEO staff member where it was explained that the informal option could involve game suspension and mandatory counseling, according to Ware. This differed from what Ware said she was first told, so she changed her mind and opted for the informal route, as she was led to believe that it could result in disciplinary action. However, she later found out that mandatory counseling and game suspensions are not possible under the informal route.

Disappointed and disturbed by the way UVM handled her case, Ware decided to join a group of seven other women who are suing the NCAA for failing to protect them in alleged sexual assaults. The story was first reported by ESPN with a story in April stating that an unnamed America East school was named in the lawsuit. While the identity of the school was not revealed initially, evidence in the lawsuit seemed to indicate Vermont was the likeliest school to have been accused.

According to USA Today, there is nothing in the NCAA’s 440-page rulebook that stops those found responsible for sexual or violent misconduct from competing. Even if the athlete is expelled from the school, they can transfer to another one. The lawsuit states that the NCAA has a duty to the women “to supervise, regulate, monitor and provide reasonable and appropriate rules to minimize the risk of injury or danger to student-athletes and by student-athletes.”

Not only was Ware disturbed by how UVM handled her case, but many UVM students are outraged, and an Instagram page called @JusticeforKendall was created earlier in the month.

“UVM wants our community to support a rapist,” the owner of the account wrote in a post.

According to the Vermont Cynic, another student, senior Madeleine Kovacs, who is on the DI swim team with Ware, wrote an email demanding the resignation of Schulman and Balogh.

“We no longer feel safe under your jurisdiction; we do not believe in you,” Kovacs wrote to the Cynic. “I firmly believe that you can ensure your student athletes’ safety and well-being by leaving your job as athletic administrators.”

Throughout this yearlong process, Ware has declined to publicly name the student-athlete.

“The reason I’m choosing not to name him, I don’t want it to become all about him,” Ware said. “He’s not in any way, shape or form involved in my life presently. But there’s that shadow that’s been cast over me from the assault.”

Schulman and the University of Vermont declined to comment on the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Cynic’s stories.

The men’s soccer team is just one of several BU teams functioning differently during the coronavirus pandemic. Since the team is not playing its season until the spring, they are not allowed to have full team practices and players must wear facial coverings and social distance when feasible.

“Right now, we are practicing in groups of 10,” said senior midfielder and team captain Noah Luescher. “We’re in small groups still, just trying to be responsible and not take any risks. We are just trying to make the right decisions now to make sure we are all safe.”

Even with these safety precautions in place, the pandemic is difficult for student-athletes to escape.

“One of our teammates actually tested positive, so they had to go into quarantine,” Luescher said. “So their apartment was in quarantine for 14 days and they are going through the protocol to come back right now.”

When it was announced on July 17 that fall sports will be played in the spring, Luescher said that the team was gutted to hear the news. However, he is much more concerned with public safety than playing time.

“Right now, there are bigger issues at hand,” Luescher said. “We’re in a global pandemic, so I think it was the right call [to move fall sports to the spring], but we were definitely disappointed. But the safety of everyone is much more important than playing the season. There are bigger issues at hand, so we’re glad that we can possibly play the season in the spring.”

COVID-19 doesn’t just interrupt playing time — it also interrupts team comradery. The players could not see each other for six months and must now stick to their assigned groups, ultimately unable to function as a whole. Despite the delegation of groups, the team has found ways to stay connected via Zoom calls, group chats over Snapchat, GroupMe and text messages, socially distanced hangouts and even a book club.

While the upperclassmen are familiar with each other and may not need to see each other as much to stay connected, the pandemic poses a unique and difficult challenge for the freshman members.

“We have three freshmen right now that live on campus and for them, it’s definitely been tough, but I think they’re doing a great job,” Luescher said. “They’re not in my pod — they’re practicing with the sophomores right now, but I try to reach out to them as much as I can and see how they’re doing, and I think they’re doing pretty well. They like it here so far and they’re doing a really good job of adjusting to the situation. They’re doing what they can to be a part of the team.”

In a B-Line News Addition on Wednesday morning, BU President Harvey Stenger announced that the University will be pausing in-person activities for two weeks, which includes all in-person activity for the athletics teams. Knowing that there’s a possibility that the University could shut down for the rest of the fall semester and possibly the spring semester, Luescher’s goals are fluid, but optimistic for the spring season.

“Our goal is to stay here as long as possible, to be on the field as long as possible, so we can best prepare for the spring season if there is one, which we are optimistic that there is, but right now there are so many uncertain things,” Luescher said. “You never know when the message can come out that school’s gonna be shut down, so we just want to be here as long as we can to get to the highest level of our fitness and playing abilities to just be ready for the spring season.”

“One thing that really made me want to come here is I saw that people looked like me,” Korsah said.

In the fall of 2019, Korsah was having a conversation with one of her friends who told her that there was a club on Stony Brook University’s campus called Student Athletes of Color for Success. Korsah immediately brought the idea to teammates Janelle Williams, ‘20, and junior Tyler Shepherd, and in June, the idea became a reality. The three athletes co-founded BU Student Athletes of Color for Success (S.A.C.S.).

The athletes had some help getting the organization off the ground. Shepherd, the vice president of the organization, said that after his freshman year, he began to reflect on who he was as a person and who he wanted to surround himself with and began having conversations about this with his assistant coach, Jesse Fuca.

“Growing up black in America is different than growing up white, and our problems we can tell other people, but they can’t relate to it,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd expressed to Fuca that he was frustrated by this and wanted a place to build a community of student-athletes of color who feel comfortable with each other. With Fuca’s help, Korsah, Shepherd and Williams did just that.

Korsah, the president of BU S.A.C.S., said that the main purpose of the club is to act as a safe space for people of color. She also noted how important the alumni network is to the organization. Williams, who graduated in May, is currently acting as the alumna advisor for the organization.

“We want this [club] to be a place where we can have a strong alumni network, so we plan on having other people of color who were student-athletes come in and talk to everyone and just build a network so that we have opportunities for the future,” Korsah said.

In addition to this, the Binghamton S.A.C.S. Instagram page states the four main missions of the organization are to foster a community of solidarity among student-athletes of color within athletics, to create a space where experiences and issues regarding race can be discussed, provide student-athletes of color with opportunities for growth and development and empower student-athletes of color to strive for success in every regard.

The group also wants to work with other clubs on campus and different communities in the Binghamton area.

“We want to mentor other communities like Binghamton High School or organizations involving kids just to help them find a place where they’ll feel comfortable,” Korsah said. “We really want this club to bring about a change on campus and in the community and create a better place for our student athletes of color.”

BU S.A.C.S. is also committed to affecting social change through athletics. Recently, the organization put out a statement demanding justice for Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin police officers on Aug. 23.

Shepherd said that he believes that athletes have the power to change the world, especially with their status in society.

“There are a lot of people out there who seem to be under the notion that these athletes are athletes and entertainers first and Black men second,” Shepherd said. “When they’re on the streets, off the courts and outside of the athlete world, they’re just a Black man or a Black woman. To people who say athletes shouldn’t be a part of politics, first off, it’s not even politics, it’s human rights. Second, they’re Black people first, so they have the right to be able to share their voice and say what they want to say on a topic as long as it’s positive and provoking good change.”

Korsah believes this is all the more reason to build a student-athlete community where people of color can feel safe.

“We’re not only athletes,” Korsah said. “We’re also people of color. We’re people, so how can we be expected to play and be focused on our game when there’s stuff happening in the world against our own people?”

This past season, Shapiro Ord coached her team to a 9-0 start, the second-best start to a season in program history, and led BU to the America East (AE) semifinals for the first time since 2016. She also led BU to a 22-win season, tying the sixth-most in program history, and coached and developed the America East Player of the Year, senior guard Kai Moon. Due to Shapiro Ord’s success in the 2019-20 season, she has been named Pipe Dream’s Coach of the Year.

“The reason we were so successful is because of the players,” Shapiro Ord said. “It takes a little bit for them to get and understand different coaching styles, and I think once they realized what I was about and who I’m about — and it’s about them and building relationships with them and showing them that if you stick to the process and believe in what our goals are and what our vision is, then the sky’s the limit.”

Shapiro Ord comes from a long line of coaches, as both of her parents were coaches. Her father was a men’s basketball coach and an athletics director, and her mother was a men’s and women’s tennis coach and a cheerleading coach. In her undergraduate years, Shaprio Ord was a three-year starting point guard for UMBC, and in her first year out of college, Shapiro Ord took an assistant coaching job with Nazareth College.

“When I finished playing ball at UMBC Maryland I wasn’t able to play at the next level, pro, and to stay with basketball, something I love so much, the next best thing is to coach,” Shapiro Ord said.

Shapiro Ord held nine coaching jobs, primarily as an assistant, before coming to BU after serving as the head coach at Weber State University. She said she chose to come to Binghamton because of athletics director Patrick Elliott.

“First and foremost, my athletics director is the best,” Shapiro Ord said. “He’s one of the top in the country and that’s why I’m here. He’s the one that got me to come here.”

The support that Shapiro Ord said she has received at BU has been unmatched. Since coming to BU, she stated that her experience has been good because she has been welcomed by the University, the community and the media. In order to show her appreciation, Shapiro Ord has been delivering thank-you notes to community members who attended several of this season’s games.

Since Shapiro Ord has been with the Bearcats, she has 34 wins under her belt, including this season’s quarterfinal victory against UNH and the win against Albany, which was the first time in nine years that BU won against the Great Danes.

“I can’t see far away,” Shapiro Ord said. “So the last two minutes of the [Albany] game, when I knew we had it and there was no way they were coming back, I actually put my glasses on so I could see once the buzzer went off. I was looking around to see the fans, how happy they were. I just wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to take it all in for our kids too.”

Although Shapiro Ord has had many moments to be proud of, she said that keeping the bonds with her former players and seeing who and what they become after their basketball careers are what make her coaching job fulfilling.

“My proudest moments as a coach are when I hear from my former players,” Shapiro Ord said. “They just got married, they got a new job, they just became a head coach or just became a doctor or they graduated from getting their master’s or having a baby or having a family … just seeing how well my kids are doing once they’re done with basketball.”

Shapiro Ord propelled the Bearcats to new heights this season but does not take credit for all of the team’s success. Instead, she pointed to the chemistry between the players and the coaching staff as the ultimate reason for the successful season.

“I treat my staff, my program, my players like family,” Shapiro Ord said. “You work with each other, you’re there for each other, you have great chemistry. You’re in battle, but you’re still there for each other.”

Playing under the gamer tag Rawk, Ahr won his first five matches to advance to the grand finals, facing off against opponent Misha from UMBC in the best of five finals matchup. After winning two rounds and dropping one, Ahr entered the fourth and what would be the final matchup. The game was even, as both Ahr and Misha lost two stocks. The two traded blows, but with a critical sequence in the corner, Ahr took home the $1,500 and the first-ever AE esports title.

“I realized that he jumps from ledge a lot, so I had to punish that, and I waited until the moment where I could kill him for it instead of just getting a light punish,” Ahr said.

Ahr played as the character Dark Samus throughout the invitational. In both the first and third match of the grand finals, Ahr lost two stocks before Misha, who played using Little Mac. Ahr even lost a match, but he remained composed and ultimately won both rounds off of a whiffed knockout punch.

“I knew that his character was a lot faster than mine and has better ground move, so I had to stay in the air above him or just run away from him,” Ahr said. “I knew when I had him cornered on the sides that he liked to jump, so I would do a move that covers the jump and would kill him, and he kind of got caught by that several times where I was able to clutch out games. So by the time I got him to the corners I was ready for that opportunity and won because of that.”

Streaming on Twitch throughout the day, the invitational was open to all students whose schools belong to the AE conference. The original event was scheduled to take place on the campus of the University at Albany, but the invitational was moved online due to the pandemic. Typically, esports tournaments take place in person, and Ahr said that online tournaments have lag that make it more difficult to play.

“Basically when you’re inputting a move, there’s an innate amount of lag that happens,” Ahr said. “If I want to do something, because it’s Wi-Fi, it has to connect with someone else’s console and then there’s more lag to the time that the move actually comes out. So you can still react, but the move won’t come out in time despite you reacting to whatever the other person is doing.”

Smash tournaments are usually double elimination, but the AE Invitational utilized a single elimination bracket. Ahr said that because the Invitational was single elimination, he almost lost to UMBC’s Tae in the third round.

“I was stressed about it because it was single elimination brackets so if you lose, you’re out,” Ahr said. “Usually Smash tournaments are double elimination so you basically get a second chance.”

Although this is the first time that Ahr represented Binghamton in an individual bracket, he has represented BU before for crew battles. Ahr is the treasurer of the Binghamton Video Game Association and said that the club usually plays as a five-person team in tournaments. The team has previously traveled to Drexel and RIT for such competitions.

Several schools in the AE have formal esports programs, and with it gaining more traction, Ahr hopes that BU will develop a similar initiative.

“SUNY Canton has an esports program, and other schools do too, so it would be cool if [BU] had that,” Ahr said. “We have a big community with the Video Game Association club on campus and we don’t get a lot of funding even though we have a lot of interest.”

Even though Binghamton only had three players in the AE Esports Invitational, Ahr believes that all around BU has the best players in the state.

“[BU is] the strongest Smash school in New York,” Ahr said.

With all of Binghamton University’s canceled sporting events came lost jobs. Students who work for BU athletics and the BU health and wellness studies department, such as athletics events staff, ESPN production assistants and lifeguards, have lost their employment for the spring semester.

In the professional world, there have been many documented cases of teams and athletes providing hourly wages to their event staff to temper the blow of the elimination of their positions by virtue of canceled events; however, for part-time student assistants, no such benefits exist.

“Nothing was offered for me — no other opportunities,” said Emily Barnes, an ESPN production assistant with the athletics department and a senior majoring in English. “It was basically just like this is it and we’re no longer.”

According to the New York State Department of Labor, “students enrolled in and in regular attendance at the educational institution that employs them or their spouses” and “students enrolled at a nonprofit or public educational institution in certain work-study programs that combine academic instruction and work experience” are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits.

Keirsten Frair, a West Gym lifeguard and a senior majoring in biology, said she may able to make her monthly payments without an income. Frair, a commuter, is expected to pay for gas, interest on student loans and more than $150 a month for car insurance.

“I live about 40 minutes to campus and I don’t have enough self-funding to live on campus, and the government doesn’t give me enough money to be able to [live on campus],” Frair said. “That being said, I need to fill up my car once a week with gas just to get to school, and not having a car because I let my insurance lapse is not an option.”

Some unemployed students are attempting to find work, but with all nonessential businesses shut down across New York state, including movie theaters, bars, restaurants and schools, securing new jobs is difficult.

“There have been no alternatives provided,” Frair said. “I have tried to seek them out on my own, but [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo shut down basically all nonessential business, so it is really hard to find another job to suffice.”

Without the option for unemployment insurance benefits, Frair said she believes BU should issue refunds on some aspects of student life.

“They need to give us at least partial refunds back to us on things that we obviously won’t be using that we paid for at the beginning of the semester,” Frair said. “In my case, I should be able to get my transportation fee back because I’ll obviously be at home, so I won’t be using that, the Decker Student Health Services [Center] fee, my [Health and Wellness Studies 202: Scuba] fee and basically any fee that is conditional on being on campus.”

Barnes criticized the University’s response to the pandemic, and said BU should have prepared a plan so its student employees would not be “stuck” and “displaced.”

“I don’t think there’s much [the University] can do at this point just because of the situation that we’re in, but I definitely think there should have been some sort of severance pay, because some students definitely rely on this,” Barnes said. “Understandably, it’s difficult to do that because you’re not doing anything for the money, but again, that wasn’t their choice.”

Frair and Barnes are just two of the hundreds of student employees displaced from their jobs after the cancellation of BU athletics events. For those who are not graduating, jobs are expected to return next year, but Frair said they are currently left in a difficult position.

“I don’t know how I am going to be able to make my payments without any sort of job or help,” Frair said.