FREDONIA, N.Y. -- Fredonia State men's hockey coach
Jeff Meredith believes last weekend's road tandem of SUNYAC games served as an eye-opener for his newcomers.
Several Blue Devil freshmen who had quick starts to their collegiate careers in a pair of wins vs. Assumption found the going much tougher last weekend at Brockport (4-4 tie) and Geneseo (2-1 loss).
"I think our freshmen," Meredith said, "found the games much tighter in SUNYAC play versus what they experienced in the first weekend against Assumption. Hopefully the experience from last weekend will help us this weekend."
The Blue Devils have another SUNYAC road test Friday at Morrisville State. They will then continue southward to take on the Penn State club team Saturday. Both games have 7 p.m. faceoffs.
The Penn State game is the part of a home-and-home deal which will bring the Nittany Lions to Steele Hall next season as a first-year NCAA Division I program. And while it's the sexier of the two games this weekend, the Morrisville State trip is much more meaningful.
The Blue Devils struggled for much of the first semester last season, at one point falling to 3-8-0, yet eventually advanced all the way to the SUNYAC championship game. The hope to avoid digging a similar hole for themselves this season.
"It is a long season," Meredith said. "Remembering last year when we got off to a slow start, we learned that we just have to keep moving forward and evolving as a team. But when you boil it all down, Friday night is a pretty big game."
