Just take a deep breath and bask in the glory that is the end of the semester. Feels good, doesn’t it? Well, while students around campus are home enjoying their time off over break, the winter season will continue for most Boston University athletes.
Take a look at what’s on tap for the next four weeks for the Terrier hockey, men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling teams:
Ice Hockey
To put it lightly, things have not gone well in Terrier Nation as of late. The Terriers (4-5-4, 2-4-2 Hockey East) dropped out of the USA Today College Hockey poll Top 15 earlier this week for the first time in more than two years after winning only once in their last six games.
BU will try to turn it around this Saturday when Niagara University comes to Walter Brown Arena for a 7 p.m. game. The Purple Eagles (8-6-1, 6-0-0 College Hockey Association) have soared through CHA play this year, and enter this weekend’s contest with wins in five of their last seven games.
Their biggest victory of the year so far, however, came on Oct. 25 in a 5-2 upset over a depleted University of New Hampshire squad. That night, the Wildcats (now No. 5 in the nation) were missing eight players due to suspensions surrounding a riot that broke out on the Durham, N.H. campus after the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees in Game 7 of American League Championship Series.
But the biggest test over the break for BU will come on Jan. 2 and 3 when the team travels to Minneapolis to take on the two-time defending national champion, the University of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers (7-8-1, 4-7-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) began the season ranked atop the USA Today poll, but after going 2-7-1 to start the year, they dropped from the top 15 on Nov. 4 following two losses to now-No. 1 University of North Dakota.
Minnesota has been on a tear lately, though, winning five of its last six games to pull within one game of the .500 mark. Before taking on the Terriers, the Golden Gophers face off against Princeton University and either No. 14 Miami University of Ohio or New Hampshire in the Dodge Holiday Classic on Dec. 20 and 21.
BU will wrap up play over the vacation with a matchup against conference foe Northeastern University at home on Jan 9.
Basketball
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will be very busy over the next four weeks, playing a combined 12 games before classes resume on Jan. 12.
The men’s squad (3-3), which will play seven games over vacation, will continue the non-conference portion of its schedule with games against Cleveland State University (at home on Dec. 22), Fordham University (away on Dec. 28) and the University of Michigan, in probably one of the biggest games of the season, on Dec. 30.
The Terriers kick off conference play at home against New Hampshire on Jan. 2, and continue their America East slate with contests against the University at Albany, the University of Hartford and Binghamton University before second semester starts.
The women’s team (2-3) will play at Harvard University this Sunday and at Wagner College on Dec. 30 before returning home to take on Marist College on Jan. 3. Hartford comes calling the following Thursday to open up conference play, before BU travels to play Binghamton on Jan. 11.
Wrestling
The BU wrestling team will look to capture its second win in the Colonial Athletic Association tonight when it travels to Hofstra University for a 7 p.m. match. The Terriers (3-1, 1-0 CAA) will then take more than two weeks off before they compete in the Midlands Tournament on Dec. 28 and Wilkes Tournament on Dec. 29.
BU then hops on the bus once again to grapple with Sacred Heart University on Jan. 9 in its final match before the end of break.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
