West Babylon, N.Y. - The East Coast Conference announced all of the league's spring sports will proceed as scheduled in its latest return to competition update on Monday afternoon.
As with the conference's winter sports, return to competition for spring sports will take place in accordance with ECC, NCAA, school, local, and state regulations pertaining to COVID-19. In addition, no spectators will be allowed at any ECC spring sports competition.
Some of the league's eight spring championships will be slightly altered for the spring of 2021 only due to health and safety guidelines, member school opt-outs, and NCAA Championship format changes. Specific details for each sport are listed below.
"The ECC is excited to move forward with our spring sport championships over the next several months," said ECC Commissioner, Dr. Robert Dranoff. "We know the sport seasons will look different, teams may still opt-out, and we will have to make adjustments to the championship events, but our goal of trying to provide a safe and positive experience for ECC student-athletes has not changed."
Men's/Women's Outdoor Track & Field
The ECC Outdoor Track & Field Championship will take place on Saturday, May 1 at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, N.Y. Queens College has opted out but there are no other changes for the sport.
Men's/Women's Tennis
Due to opt-outs by University of the District of Columbia (men and women) and Molloy College (women), there are changes to the regular season and championship for the sports of men's and women's tennis.
On the men's side, the three remaining schools (Daemen, Queens, St. Thomas Aquinas) will play a six-game schedule consisting of three matchups against each opponent. The same three schools, as well as league-newcomer D'Youville, will compete in the women's season that will see each team play eight matches.
In addition, with only three championship eligible teams (D'Youville is ineligible as a provisional NCAA Division II member) the semifinals of the conference championship will be eliminated, leaving only the final between the top two-seeds to determine the league's champion.
Both championships will take place the weekend of May 1 at a to be determined location.
Men's/Women's Lacrosse
The regular season schedules for the ECC's men's and women's lacrosse teams will be reduced by a game with the opt-out of the University of the District of Columbia.
No changes have been made to the conference championship. The men's semifinals will take place on May 5, while the women's will be on May 6, both taking place on the campus of the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. The final of both tournaments will be hosted by Mercy College on May 8.
Baseball/Softball
The sports of baseball and softball have no changes in their regular season schedules but will see a new format for the conference tournament.
Both sports will move away from their traditional four-team, double-elimination tournament to best-of-three semifinal and final series spread out over two weekends. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will both host semifinal series, while the highest remaining seed will host the final.
The change aligns the sports with the conference's decision to move other championships (such as basketball) away from their usual formats that brought more than two teams to the same site. The change also removes a potential week off between the conference tournament and NCAA regionals. Last week, Division II announced that it was moving to a single regional site for baseball and softball due to a reduced championship bracket. The NCAA's change also necessitated a delay of a week to each sports' championship selection date.
With the updated format, the ECC Softball Championship will now see its semifinal series played on May 7-8 and its final on May 14-15. The ECC Baseball Championship semifinals will now take place on May 14-15, with the final series to follow on May 21-22.
