It was a memorable weekend for University of Maine men’s soccer coach Travers Evans.

Just as he was to get into his rental car to follow the team bus Thursday for the season-opening Quinnipiac Classic (Conn.), his wife, Johanna, went into labor with the couple’s first child.

She called him on his cellphone and the couple proceeded to Bangor’s Eastern Maine Medical Center where 8-pound, 12-ounce, 22-inch Riley John Evans was born approximately 24 hours later.

Former Maine men’s soccer coach and current assistant athletic director Jim Dyer took over the team with assistant coach Mat Cosgriff.

“We had a prior arrangement to have Jim go down with them if Johanna went into labor,” said Evans.

After the child was born, Evans called Dyer’s wife, Jane, every 15 minutes to get updates on his team’s Friday game against Quinnipiac. The teams battled to a 0-0 double overtime tie.

Evans left early Saturday morning to join his team and then they put on a respectable showing in a 3-0 loss to nationally ranked Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday.

Fairleigh Dickinson is ranked 14th in the College Soccer News.com poll. The Knights reached the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals a year ago where they were beaten 3-2 in overtime by eventual national champ North Carolina.

“We had a decent performance. We had a couple of defensive lapses that cost us goals. But we had over 10 shots on goal against a very, very strong team. It wasn’t like we were locked in our own end,” said Evans whose team was outshot 18-11.

“Our guys were very nervous in the first half. They knew where Fairleigh Dickinson was ranked and how they did last year. In the second half, we realized we could play with them and it was fairly even,” said Evans.

With mother and son doing well and back home, it was back to business for Evans and his Bears this week.

“We gained some valuable experience over the weekend. Those teams showed us where we are vulnerable and what we need to improve upon,” said Evans whose team plays its home opener against Assumption College (Mass.) on Sunday at 1:00.

Maine basketball teams face tests

The University of Maine men’s and women’s basketball teams are faced with some of the most challenging travel schedules in America East.

This winter, the Black Bears expect to benefit from scheduling changes adopted for the 2002-03 America East season.

In recent years, UMaine has played two games in three days on most conference weekends, often Thursday and Saturday. For road series, that meant four days traveling and having a day or less to prepare for the second opponent on the trip.

“One of the interesting things about having a travel partner schedule is that it’s very difficult to win that second road game in a row,” said UMaine men’s coach John Giannini. “I think this might make for some more even games where you don’t have a real fatigued team that’s been on the road for three or four days.”

Under the new format, most games are scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday or Thursday and Sunday. UMaine women’s coach Sharon Versyp is pleased about the change.

“It’s going to be more consistent in that everybody will have almost the same time to prepare, the same time to rest,” Versyp said, “rather than playing on a Friday-Sunday-Tuesday and the team you’re playing on Tuesday hasn’t played for a week.”

Versyp believes the schedule will allow the better teams to separate themselves from the pack, rather than lose certain games because of road fatigue and limited preparation time.

“You’ll see better competitiveness, equality with teams playing with that kind of consistency,” she said.

Under the new format, teams will often be able to play a road game, return home for a day or two of classes, then head back on the road. This way, student-athletes won’t automatically miss two consecutive days of classes when playing AE road series.

“Academically, it will be better for the kids and it will give all of us more time to prepare, Versyp said.