Defending Keystone Conference champions open their season at West Chester, a the Keystone gets going for another year.

Temple is as Millersville, Shippensburg is at Rutgers, and St. Joseph’s is at Pitt. While WVU are the defending champs, St. Joe’s and Shippensburg both boasted 5-1 records last year, as well.

St. Joe’s Head Coach Dan Yarusso said his team is eager for conference play to start. Led by the fleet-footed Jimmy Wolfer, the Hawks will address this week’s game against Pitt the way they will likely have to handle every game - avoid getting into a slugfest.

“Pitt have some pretty big kids and we don’t,” said Yarusso. “So we will need to keep the ball in play, limit our mistakes, and rely on our fitness.”

A program that plays good 7s as well as 15s, St. Joe’s might have to draw on their 7s experience.