ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Term II classes began this morning on Elmira College's campus, as the second half of the academic year is officially underway. Just as classes resumed, so have Elmira's four winter sport teams, all of which were in action this past week. In addition, EC men's volleyball kicks off its 2017 campaign this week, setting up an exciting few months of indoor sporting events in the Southern Tier.  Following the resignation of four-year head coach Keith Moore, Elmira College is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Brenner as the new head coach of the EC men's soccer team. Brenner comes to Elmira with a wide range of coaching experience at each level of NCAA men's soccer (I, II & III), with his most recent head coaching responsibilities at Division II Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio.
 
During his two-year stint with Lake Erie, Brenner amassed a 15-16-6 overall record and helped guide the Storm to back-to-back Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) postseason bids. In 2015, Brenner led Lake Erie to a third-place regular-season finish and the program's first-ever GLIAC championship appearance.
   
  With the New Year comes another new sports season, as the Elmira College men's volleyball team embarks on its 2017 campaign. The new season begins this Friday, January 13th, with a 5:00 p.m. non-conference match against Marymount University at EC's Speidel Gymnasium. First-year head coach Daniel Miranda will be making his debut as the bench boss of the Soaring Eagles, and will be looking to help Elmira collect its second straight home-opening win.
  The second half of Elmira's schedule is filled with several opportunities to catch the Soaring Eagles on their home ice at the Murray Athletic Center. Of Elmira's final 11 regular-season games, eight will take place at the friendly confines of the MAC in Pine Valley, New York. Fans can catch the Purple and Gold at home this weekend, as Elmira welcomes Curry College and No. 13/14 Salve Regina University for pair of non-league games. EC clashes with Curry on Friday, January 13th, before taking on the nationally-ranked Seahawks the following Saturday night. Both bouts are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.  Shuttle buses are available for EC students for both contests – they will leave the campus bus loop at approximately 6:15 p.m. and will depart from the MAC at approximately 9:15 p.m.
  After a challenging week that saw the Soaring Eagles battle three nationally-ranked opponents, the Elmira women resume their ECAC West schedule with a pair of league contests against SUNY Cortland. EC will travel to face Cortland in a 7:00 p.m. bout on Friday night, before taking on the Red Dragons at the Murray Athletic Center on Saturday, January 14th, at 3:00 p.m. A fan shuttle bus will be available for EC students – the bus will leave the campus bus loop at approximately 2:15 p.m. and will depart from the MAC at approximately 5:15 p.m.
  Elmira's men's and women's basketball teams are also in action at home this weekend, as the Soaring Eagles welcome Utica College to Speidel Gymnasium for a pair of E8 games on Saturday, January 14th. The Elmira women tip-off against Utica at 2:00 p.m., with the men's game following at 4:00 p.m. Both games will serve as the Buffalo Wild Wings Games of the Year – fans will have the opportunity to win several great prizes throughout the day, courtesy of the local BWW, located in Big Flats, New York.
 
  A young Elmira squad looks to be hitting its stride in the New Year, as the Soaring Eagles opened 2017 with a 1-0-1 showing against SUNYAC opposition. Elmira began the second half of its schedule with a dominant 6-3 victory over visiting SUNY Cortland, a game in which EC never trailed at any point. Six different players scored for the Soaring Eagles in the win, while a total of 13 skaters registered points, four of which had multi-point performances. Rookies Cameron Mack '20 and Andrew Pucci '20 scored their first collegiate goals in the win, with Mack's coming on his first shift in the opening period.
 
The following night, Elmira faced one of its toughest tests when it traveled to take on the country's second-highest scoring team in No. 6/7 nationally-ranked SUNY Genenseo. Elmira matched the Knights shift-for-shift and even held a brief 2-1 lead midway through the second stanza. However, the game would end in a 2-2 overtime tie. Senior netminder Sal Magliocco '17 produced one of the finest games of his collegiate career with a season-high 44 saves to preserve the tie. His 44 stops were the second-highest single-game total of his career, which helped hold the Knights to their second-lowest scoring output of the 2016-17 season.
  Wins proved to be hard to come by for the Soaring Eagles, who went 0-2-1 on the road against some stiff competition. Elmira began the week with a 2-2 overtime tie against No. 6 Middlebury College in a rare Monday evening tilt in Vermont. EC trailed 2-0 to the Panthers, but scored twice on goals from Maddie Evangelous '19 and Louisa Lippiatt Durnell '18 in a 1:44 stretch to force overtime.
 
Five days later, the Soaring Eagles made the trek to Northfield, Vermont, to compete in the Seventh Annual East-West Hockey Classic, hosted by Norwich University. Elmira suffered a 1-0 loss to the No. 4/5 Cadets in the opening round, before falling to No. 5/4 Adrian College in the consolation game. Meghan Fonfara '18 paced the Purple and Gold in the loss to Adrian with three points on two goals and one assist. For her efforts, Fonfara was named to the East-West Hockey Classic All-Tournament Team.
  The 2017 portion of Elmira's schedule began with back-to-back conference matchups against Hartwick College and Stevens Institute of Technology this past week. In Elmira's home- and conference-opener against the Hawks, the Soaring Eagles trailed for most of the first half, but held a steady lead from 17:56 to 7:41 of the second stanza. During that stretch, EC led by as many as eight points with under 10 minutes to play, but a 12-2 run by the Harwick gave the Hawks a two-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation. Elmira reclaimed the lead on three separate occasions, but Hartwick would lock things down defensively and march away with a 71-65 victory.
 
In Saturday's road contest against Stevens, Elmira held a six-point lead in the first half, but the Ducks finished strong to take a four-point lead into the halftime break. Stevens pushed its lead to as many as 11 points in the second half with 5:06 to play, however, EC trimmed the Stevens lead to 70-67 with 20 ticks remaining on the clock.  Following a pair of made free-throws from the Ducks, an untimely turnover from the Soaring Eagles all but sealed 69-64 Stevens victory. Sharp-shooter Hayden Harkins '18 led the charge with a two-game scoring average of 16.5 points per game. He knocked down 9-of-17 attempts from 3-point range, which helped the Tampa native move into sole possession of seventh place on EC's all-time list for 3-point makes.
  Elmira entered the New Year riding high on a three-game win streak, with all three victories taking place on its home hardwood at Speidel Gymnasium. Unfortunately, EC's run of wins came to a screeching halt last week, as the Soaring Eagles dropped a trio of contests, two of which came against Empire 8 opposition.  
 
EC suffered double-digit losses to Hartwick, SUNY Geneseo and Stevens to open the 2017 portion of its schedule. Rachel Vespucci '19 and Emily Green '18 led the Soaring Eagles with 11.7 and 10.3 points per game, respectively. Vespucci also averaged a double-double in that time with an 11.0 rebound per game average. The bulk of Vespucci's scoring and rebounding came on the road against Stevens, a game that saw the second-year forward log a monster double-double with 20 buckets and 18 boards.