A new school year on the South Hill also means fall sports are starting back up.
Head volleyball coach Johan Dulfer begins his coaching career at Ithaca College with four games in two days as part of the North Country Season Opener. The Bombers will face SUNY Brockport and St. Lawrence University on Sept. 2 and then Juniata College and Clarkson University on Sept. 3. Before taking the job at the college, Dulfer was the head coach at Clarkson and led the Golden Knights to a victory over the Bombers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Head coach Patrick Ouckama will look to improve in his second year at the helm of the men’s soccer team on Sept. 2 when the Blue and Gold open their season on the road at Clarkson. The team will take the field again Sept. 3 when it travels to Canton, New York, to take on St. Lawrence. Despite a 7–8–3 record in 2015, the Bombers reached the Empire 8 Championship game but ultimately fell to Stevens Institute of Technology 1–0.
The football team will play the inaugural game of head coach Mike Welch’s final season at 1 p.m. Sept. 3 in Butterfield Stadium against Union College. The Bombers will enter this matchup with very little knowledge of their opponent, as the Dutchmen have completely revamped their team under new head coach Jeff Behrman after finishing last season with a 0–10 record.
The cross-country team will begin its season with its only home meet when it hosts the Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakiam Memorial Alumni Run on Sept. 3. Junior Taryn Cordani will look to have another strong season for the Bombers as she comes off a 14th-place finish at the 2015 NCAA Division III Cross-Country Championships.
Junior Indiana Jones will look to lead the golf team to another Empire 8 Championship when the team plays in the St. Lawrence Invitational for its first tournament of the year Sept. 3–4. Jones led the team last year with a first-place finish in the Empire 8 Championship.
After losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2015, the women’s soccer team plans to show signs of improvement in its 23rd season under head coach Mindy Quigg. The Bombers begin their season in the Michelle Vargas-Robin Memorial Tournament in New Paltz, New York. They will take on the Sage Colleges on Sept. 3 and SUNY New Paltz on Sept. 4.
To cap off the weekend, the 11-time reigning Empire 8 Champion women’s tennis team will begin its season at home against Stevens Institute of Technology at noon Sept. 4. The South Hill squad will look to make it past the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in senior Haley Kusak’s storied career.
