Snow days snow in Stonehill Athletes

By Annie Renz

The blizzard of ‘26 interrupted most of Stonehill’s operations and halted varsity athletes’ lifts, practices, and games.  

The Sports Complex locked its doors to all athletes, including the teams that are in-season and, for some, preparing for upcoming playoff games.  

“Sundays are always our off days, so not practicing for three days heading into round one of the playoffs was a little nerve-wracking, but we also made sure to take advantage of the three days of no practice and got lots of rest,” said women’s ice hockey assistant captain Maddi Achtyl.  

Recreational Sports sent three emails between Sunday, February 22 and Tuesday, February 24 alerting all students about Spoco’s closure. The first informed students that all Complex operations would be closed Monday, but that the building was set to reopen on Tuesday.  

On Monday afternoon, Rec Sports sent out another email to students saying Spoco would be closed again on Tuesday.  

Students tried to get into Spoco during the day on Tuesday even though the building was “closed.” By early afternoon, students could be seen running on the treadmill or using weights and machines.  

Women’s soccer got together in the field house at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Their coaches were snowed-in at home, but their coach told them to get together and play pick-up futsal for about an hour.  

Just past three o’clock on Tuesday, Rec Sports sent out their third email alerting students that Spoco would open from 4-10 p.m. that day and would resume normal hours on Wednesday.  

Like women’s soccer, women’s basketball adjusted to the snow days. The team held a captains’ practice Monday night in Merkert Gym. 

For some teams, the snow days disrupted games and travel.  

Spring break came early for the Stonehill baseball team. What was supposed to be a long weekend in Fort Myers, Florida for a series against Florida Gulf Coast University turned into a 5-night trip because their flight home was cancelled Sunday night.  

The team was scheduled for an away series at Virginia Military Institute the following weekend, so the coaches decided not to reschedule their flight home and instead bus about eighteen hours to Virginia that Tuesday night.  

Junior Nate Kearney said the team enjoyed the extra days of practicing outside at FGCU’s facilities, something they haven’t been able to do up in Easton.  

The softball team at Stonehill also suffered from limited opportunities to use the school’s facilities.  

“We could not practice on the days that we did not have school,” said junior Alexa Hospodar. “We usually have practiced outside by this time in previous years, but now due to the snow we have to practice inside.” 

Not only did the snow restrict practices, but in-season athletes also faced challenges with games. 

Women’s tennis and women’s lacrosse faced the repercussions of the travel ban that Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey instituted across the southern coast.  

“We had a match on Sunday at Providence,” said women’s tennis senior Camila Zuluaga. “Due to the state law that prohibits moving between states during snowstorms, the match got cancelled because we wouldn’t have been able to come back in time before the mobilization was affected from the snowstorms.” 

Zuluaga said her coach then cancelled practice on Monday and Tuesday because the team travels off campus to practice. She said the roads and severity of the storm were the reasons behind the cancellation.  

“We didn’t have to take many days off, but tennis is a game that requires a lot of consistency, which means three days off can really make a difference for us,” said Zuluaga.  

The women’s lacrosse team faced some complications during the week as they were slated to host Bryant for an out-of-conference matchup on Wednesday, February 25. 

“On Monday we couldn’t practice, and we also couldn’t have film or lift, so it affected our scouting for Bryant,” said junior Alex Paglia.  

Paglia said the team ended up getting into Spoco on Tuesday to practice. There were some unknowns after the practice about how the game was going to go the next day.  

“We don’t have a bubble, and they do, so we had to – very last minute – move our game to Bryant,” said Paglia. 

The lacrosse team also suffered from the travel bans.  

“We couldn’t take a Bloom Bus or any normal bus we usually take, so we had to take three vans which was super inconvenient.” 

The women’s ice hockey team started practicing again on Wednesday. The team practices off campus at Bridgewater Ice Arena, so they had to prepare for the drive the night before.  

“Because we practice off campus, we had to go Tuesday and shovel out everyone’s cars so we could easily leave campus at 5:45 the next morning to head to the rink,” said Achtyl.  

The roads may have been clear enough for women’s hockey to get to practice, but the same could not be said for the track team.  

“The storm definitely gave us some trouble,” said junior Dylan Brilliant. “The roads were super icy and snowy, so they were pretty much impossible to run on. We had to stay off the roads and on the treadmills at Spoco which definitely was tough.” 

Fall sports put in the work in the offseason, whether that be in the gym or fieldhouse. For some teams, the snowstorm interrupted their winter conditioning.  

The volleyball team could not hold three of their practices thanks to the blizzard. Jess Barrett, a sophomore on the team, said those missed practices focus on conditioning and skill work. 

“Offseason is usually when we really try to build consistency and continue developing both individually and as a team, so losing that gym time set us back a bit in terms of maintaining our routine,” she said.  

That said, the volleyball team found ways to work around this debacle.  

“Our team did what we could to stay active on our own while campus was closed, whether that meant doing workouts at home or finding other ways to stay in shape until we were able to get back in the gym together,” said Barrett. “It wasn’t ideal, but we’ve been working to quickly get back into our normal practice schedule and make up for the missed time.” 

Ailish Kilbride, a member of the field hockey team, said her coach was very communicative during the snow frenzy. After each email sent out by the school regarding cancellations, Kilbride’s coach texted the team that practice and lift would have the same fate.  

The road conditions prevented Coach Mia Borley from getting to campus until Thursday. In the meantime, the team held a captains’ practice on Wednesday in Spoco.  

“This week was a whirlwind, but I was able to make memories with my best friends, and it was a week that we will all remember forever,” said Kilbride.