The University of New England men’s hockey team will host Plymouth State in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday in Biddeford.
The bracket for the 12-team tournament was announced on Monday morning. The Nor’easters earned their berth in the tournament with a 3-2 overtime win over Endicott College in the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament championship game on Saturday. Plymouth State (19-5-2) earned its berth into the tournament by beating Salem State 8-4 in the Massachusetts State College Athletic Association title game.
UNE (21-3-1) is riding an 11-game winning streak. The Nor’easters are making their third appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament. They lost to Colby in the first round in 2018. In 2019, they beat Trinity in the first round before losing to Norwich in the quarterfinals.
Adrian, SUNY Geneseo and Ausburg also received first-round byes.
The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to face Utica, which earned a first-round bye, in the quarterfinals on March 19.
SOFTBALL
WITTENBERG 6, ST. JOSEPH’S 1: Diana Quevedo and Alexis Christy each drove in two runs as the Tigers (2-0) defeated the Monks (1-1) in Leesburg, Florida.
Oliva Howe tripled and scored on a single by Bailey Rassol in the first inning for St. Joseph’s.
NEBRASKA WESLEYAN 9, ST. JOSEPH’S 1: The Prairie Wolves (3-1) scored seven runs in the third inning and beat the Monks (1-2) in Leesburg, Florida.
Emma Alfieri had an RBI double and Hanna Roth a two-run single in the third for Nebraska Wesleyan.
Ashley Emery was 2 for 3 for St. Joseph’s.
BASEBALL
MOUNT UNION 13, ST. JOSEPH’S 7: The Monks (1-2) went ahead 7-0 in the first inning, but the Tigers (4-4) chipped away for the win in Lake Myrtle, Florida.
Jonathan Dube hit a grand slam, Peter O’Brian added a solo homer and Luke Stephens hit a two-run double in the first for the Monks.
Coleman Stauffer, who had two hits with three RBI, hit an RBI single and later stole home during a six-run fifth that gave the Tigers an 8-7 lead.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
TOP 25: Tennessee kept winning against a demanding schedule of top teams in the Southeastern Conference. That has pushed the Volunteers to their highest ranking this season in The Associated Press poll.
While Gonzaga, Arizona and reigning national champion Baylor remained atop Monday’s poll, Rick Barnes’ squad tied Purdue for No. 9 to crack the top 10 for the first time this season. That came after the Volunteers (23-7, 14-4 SEC) closed the regular-season schedule by beating No. 15 Arkansas despite blowing most of a 24-point lead.
Still, it marked their fourth straight win and ninth in 10 games. That stretch has included wins against No. 4 Auburn and No. 5 Kentucky, sending the Vols to this week’s SEC Tournament in Tampa, Florida, as the No. 2 seed.
ACC: Wake Forest’s Alondes Williams and Coach Steve Forbes have earned the top individual honors from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The league announced Williams as its player of the year and Forbes as its top coach. The Demon Deacons were picked 13th in the preseason but have enjoyed a 23-win season and hold the No. 5 seed at this week’s ACC Tournament in New York.
It marks the first time the Demon Deacons have won both awards since 2003, when late Coach Skip Prosser and Josh Howard were the picks.
Duke freshman Paolo Banchero was voted rookie of the year, and teammate Mark Williams was chosen as defensive player of the year. North Carolina State’s Dereon Seabron was most improved player, and Florida State’s Matthew Cleveland was sixth man of the year.
Alondes Williams and Banchero joined North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, Miami’s Kameron McGusty and Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim on the all-ACC first team.
Seabron joined Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma, Duke’s Wendell Moore Jr., Notre Dame’s Blake Wesley and Wake Forest’s Jake LaRavia on the second team.
Mark Williams joined Notre Dame’s Dane Goodwin, Miami’s Isaiah Wong, Virginia’s Jayden Gardner and Georgia Tech’s Michael Devoe on the third team.
• Wake Forest says second-year coach Steve Forbes has signed a “long-term” contract extension as he leads a rapid rise for the long-struggling Demon Deacons’ program.
BIG EAST: Marquette forward Justin Lewis won the Big East’s most improved player award and Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner was voted the conference’s defensive player of the year.
Point guard Jared Bynum from regular-season champion Providence took the top sixth man prize, and Georgetown captain Donald Carey was honored with the league’s sportsmanship award.
The conference’s player of the year, coach of the year, freshman of the year and scholar-athlete of the year will be announced Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
MICHIGAN: Juwan Howard has resumed his role as coach after serving a five-game suspension for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the head.
Howard met individually with each player when the team did not have a practice.
The Wolverines are on the NCAA Tournament bubble with a 17-13 record, 11-9 mark in the Big Ten.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
TOP 25: South Carolina remained No. 1 in The Associated Press poll despite suffering its second loss of the season.
The Gamecocks (29-2) fell to Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title game Sunday, but stayed atop the poll, edging No. 2 Stanford.
South Carolina received 17 first-place votes from the 30-member national media panel. Stanford, which won the Pac-12 tournament, got 11 first-place ballots. North Carolina State was No. 3 with two top votes. Baylor and Louisville rounded out the top five.
The Gamecocks’ loss snapped an 18-game winning streak for the team, which has gone 11-0 against ranked opponents this season.
BIG 12: Baylor standout NaLyssa Smith is the Big 12 women’s basketball player of the year for the second season in a row, this time by a unanimous vote of the league’s coaches.
Smith is averaging 22.3 points and 11.7 rebounds for fourth-ranked Baylor, which won its 12th consecutive regular-season Big 12 title. Smith is the league’s top rebounder and second-leading scorer.
Brandon Schneider was named coach of the year after Kansas won 20 games for the first time since 2013. The Jayhawks, picked to finish last in the preseason poll, instead were fifth in the standings and have their best seed for the conference tournament since 2000.
Iowa State’s Lexi Donarski was tabbed the league’s top defensive player. Baylor’s Jordan Lewis, a transfer from Alabama, was picked as the league’s best newcomer.
(6) UCONN 70, VILLANOVA 40: Evina Westbrook scored 13 points, Aaliyah Edwards added 12 points and host UConn (25-5) put forth another dominant defensive effort to beat Villanova (23-8) in the Big East championship game.
It was the 20th Big East tournament championship for UConn, which avenged a loss last month to the Wildcats. That three-point defeat ended UConn’s 169-game conference winning streak dating to 2013.
UConn only had eight healthy players for that game with Paige Bueckers, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Caroline Ducharme all sidelined. Now the Huskies are healthy and Coach Geno Auriemma has one of his deepest teams over the past two decades.
(15) BYU 59, PORTLAND 52: Shaylee Gonzales scored 20 points, Paisley Harding added 14 and top-seeded BYU (26-2) beat fourth-seeded Portland (19-10) in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament at Las Vegas.
BYU avenged its only conference loss this season, falling 75-64 at Portland on Feb. 3, to earn a chance at its first WCC tournament championship since 2019 on Tuesday night.
FOOTBALL
OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma will dedicate a statue of 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield on April 23 following its spring game, the university announced.
“I’m a Sooner for life and incredibly grateful for all of the success my teammates and I had at OU,” Mayfield said in a statement. “It’s humbling and surreal to think about having a statue in iconic Heisman Park. I can’t wait to be back in Norman and reunite with the most passionate fans in college football.”
Mayfield passed for 4,627 yards and 43 touchdowns in 2017 and led the Sooners to a Big 12 Conference title and the College Football Playoff. The Cleveland Browns selected him with the top pick in the NFL draft.
Oklahoma already has statues of Heisman winners Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White and Sam Bradford on display in Heisman Park across the street from Memorial Stadium. A school spokesman said a statue of 2018 Heisman winner Kyler Murray eventually will be added.
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