By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Here’s a look at the week ahead (Jan. 12-18) for the Bridgewater State University athletics teams:

WEDNESDAY

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, at Anna Maria College, 5:00 PM: The Bears travel to Paxton, Mass., for a game against the AMCATS.

Anna Maria is a new member of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference after moving from the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

The AMCATS are 4-7 overall and dropped their lone conference game to Salem State, 71-67.

BSU, after a 1-9 start in non-conference games, are 2-0 in the MASCAC with wins over Fitchburg State and Salem State.

MEN’S BASKETBALL, at Anna Maria College, 7:00 PM: BSU takes on a MASCAC newcomer on the road.

The teams played non-conference games the past two seasons with the Bears winning both. They opened the 2023-24 season with a 119-110 overtime win on the road and defeated Anna Maria, 89-64, in a game played at Wheaton College last season.

The AMCATS are 4-8 overall and 1-1 in the conference with a loss to Salem State and a win over the Mass. College of Liberal Arts.

BSU is 3-10 overall and is 1-1 in the MASCAC, defeating Fitchburg State and losing to Salem State.

FRIDAY

MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD, at the Bates Invitational & Multi, 10:00 AM: Ryker King and Drew Alves will compete in the heptathlon at the two-day meet held at Bates College’s Merrill Gymnasium.

The University of New Hampshire finished first last season while Bates was second in the seven-team field.

SATURDAY

MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD, at the Branwen Smith-King Invitational, 10:00 AM: The Bears will take part in the meet held at Tufts University.

Last season, BSU was third in the six-team field with Kevin McBirney winning the 1,000-meter run, breaking the school record with a time of 2:29.42.

MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD, at the Bates Invitational & Multi, 10:00 AM: King and Alves will wrap up their two-day stay at the Bates College meet in Lewiston, Maine.

WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD, at the Branwen Smith-King Invitational, 10:00 AM: The Bears compete in the meet at Tufts University.

Kiara Abrantes led BSU by winning two events last season, setting a school record of 25.26 seconds in the 200 and placing first in the 60.

Serenity Sands was also first for BSU in the high jump, helping the Bears wind up third overall.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING, at home, Brandeis and Keene State, Noon: The Bears have their first competition since Dec. 6 when they host a tri-meet against the Judges and the Owls.

BSU lost to both Keene State, 166-133, and Brandeis, 165-121, in a tri-meet in New Hampshire last year.

MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING, at home, Brandeis and Keene State, Noon: The Bears return to the pool for the first time since hosting the BSU Invitational on Dec. 6.

In a tri-meet a year ago in New Hampshire, BSU split a pair, defeating Keene State, 145-112, and losing to Brandeis, 184-77.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, at home, Mass. College of Liberal Arts, Noon: The Bears close out January with four of five games at the Tinsley Center, beginning with a matchup with the Trailblazers.

The teams are meeting for the first time since Feb. 3, 2024.

WRESTLING, at home, Williams College, 12:30 PM: The Bears will host Senior Day at Kelly Gym as part of the final home match of the season.

BSU lost at home to Williams a year ago, 42-9.

Williams was No. 3 in the last New England Wrestling Association rankings.

MEN’S BASKETBALL, at home, Mass. College of Liberal Arts, 2:00 PM: After playing just two home games in the opening two months of the season, the Bears will be playing four of five games at the Tinsley Center to finish January.

BSU and Mass. College split two games last season, each winning at home.

The Trailblazers begin the week 3-8 with three straight losses and are 0-2 in the MASCAC.

SUNDAY

MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING, at Bentley University, 1:00 PM: The Bears will be in Waltham, Mass., to face the Division II Falcons.

Desmond Ng led BSU last season against the Falcons, winning the 100 breaststroke and placing second in the 200 freestyle. the Bears were defeated at home, 173-50.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING, at Bentley University, 1:00 PM: The Bears compete in the first of two straight road meets, traveling to Waltham, Mass., to take on the Division II Falcons.

BSU lost at home to Bentley, 189-99, a year ago.

This post has been updated to correct a duplicate nominee.

Voting is now open for the 2025 Las Cruces Sun-News Female Athlete of the Year award.

100 nominees have been chosen by the Sun-News across Las Cruces-area schools, including Las Cruces, Mayfield, Organ Mountain, Centennial, Mesilla Valley Christian, Gadsden, Santa Teresa, Chaparral and Hatch Valley. They have been chosen from volleyball, basketball, softball, soccer, track and field, cross country, wrestling, golf and tennis teams from all nine of those schools.

The nominees represented themselves, their schools and their communities in the best possible way they could during their respective seasons. They each accomplished something notable and made their friends, family, coaches and loved ones proud. They were All-State players, All-District players, strong performers at state championships, or members of the Sun-News’ Super Teams.

The UNC volleyball team’s fall season ended a little more than a month ago, and the Bears are already moving on toward 2026

In a rare occurrence, two freshmen will join UNC this month with the start of the spring semester. The program also said good-bye to associate head coach Pi’i Aiu, who announced his retirement in December.

Freshmen Gillian Walton and Riley Taylor were among six players to sign for 2026, the program announced in November. Walton and Taylor are expected to be on campus for the start of the spring semester Monday with both athletes opting to graduate a semester early from high school.

UNC has since announced the signing of three transfer students in setter Emily Bruss, middle blocker Summer Snead and outside hitter Kylie Cackovic.

Walton was an outside hitter, defensive specialist and opposite hitter at Overland Park High School in Overland Park, Kansas. Taylor was a right-side outside hitter at Green Level High School in Apex, North Carolina.

UNC, 17-16 overall in 2025, turned in one of its most successful seasons under head coach Lyndsey Oates.

After starting their nonconference season with a 3-9 record, the Bears turned things around during the Big Sky Conference season.

UNC won the conference tournament title on its home court, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. UNC then pushed nationally ranked Creighton to five sets in a first-round match on the Bluejays’ home floor in Omaha, Nebraska.

The match was the final one for Aiu, who’d been with Oates for seven years.

Aiu came to UNC before the 2019 season after 12 years at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He was promoted to associate head coach in January 2020, and was really a right-hand man for Oates.

She said this week the search for a successor will soon begin. Oates was aware of Aiu’s plans to retire long before the end of the season. She said she heard from several people on her coaching connection with Aiu as news of his retirement became public.

“I don’t know that I took that for granted,” Oates said of Aiu as a coaching colleague. “It is maybe true how much success the two of us had together in the last seven years.”

Oates said she previously had the same camaraderie with assistants Jenny Glenn and Tom Hunter, both of whom spent close to a decade in the program.

In the last seven years, UNC’s record is 150-64 with four Big Sky Conference Tournament titles leading to four NCAA Tournament appearances. In the same span, UNC also won a Big Sky Conference regular-season championship (2024). Also in 2024, UNC qualified for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship after a runner-up finish at the Big Sky tournament.

“It just shows you how valuable assistant coaches are,” Oates said. “I mean, they are doing a bulk of the recruiting and their training, and they create our culture as much as a head coach does.”

Four weeks ago, it was made public that Jackie Carle and Italia Bernal were both hitting the transfer portal. At the time, this left the Cougars with Livia Ward as the only setter on the team.

On Wednesday, the Cougs fixed at least part of the setter shortage by signing setter Audrey Hollis. Hollis will be a true junior in the fall and is a transfer from the University of Hawai’i. Before playing in Hawaii, she played at UC San Diego in 2024.

As a sophomore at Hawai’i, she recorded 125 assists and 49 digs. However, she only played in 16 out of 29 matches and 38 total sets.

At UC San Diego, however, she produced. As a freshman, while playing both setter and opposite, she logged 921 assists, 8.86 assists per set (fifth-most in the Big West Conference in 2024), 188 digs, 48 blocks, 57 kills and 17 service aces. She played in 27 out of 30 matches, starting in 25 of them, and helped the Tritons achieve an overall record of 17–13, which allowed them to qualify for the Big West Championship in the team’s first year of eligibility.

For her freshman-year efforts, she made the Big West All-Freshman team.

Hollis even has championship-level DNA after she helped lead her club volleyball team to win the USA Volleyball 18s National Championship in the National Division in 2022.

Despite her statistically underwhelming season at Hawai’i this past year, head coach Korey Schroeder and company will look to tap into the upside she showed in her freshman year.

“Audrey brings a lot of [experience] and [success] for us at the setter position. Her freshman season she ran a 5-1 for a very successful UC-San Diego team while she was still 17 years old,” Schroeder said about her in a statement posted on the WSU Athletics website upon signing her.

WOODROW — Like the rest of the Lubbock-Cooper freshmen three years ago, Campbell Beeler faced one of the first major decisions of her life.

Should she stay at her high school, or enter a new frontier as part of the first contingent to attend Lubbock-Cooper Liberty?

There were plenty of factors to consider, including the athletics landscape. What would sports at a new school look like?

Here is the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s volleyball Super Team for the 2025 season. Players are listed in alphabetical order in their respective tiers.

Read about our player of the year, Lubbock-Cooper Liberty senior Campbell Beeler.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Emma Clawson, Sr., OH, Shallowater

Clawson, a New Mexico State signee, notched 511 kills (.303 hitting percentage), 157 digs, 36 aces, 13 blocks and eight assists. She was District 2-3A MVP and Texas Girls Coaches Association all-state.