STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The program was Division III. The coach's tenure, for the third time in the decade, had just ended. The team, having won one regular-season title in 23 seasons, was hungry for success.
 
Enter head coach Matt Senk, and a 30-year journey.
 
"I am as excited for Year 30 as I was for Year 1," Senk said Friday, ahead of the team's first official practice.
 
Beginning with a 16-9 season to launch his tenure back in 1991, Senk set the standard for winning.
 
"Despite getting the position in the middle of February, we went out and had a really good first year," he said. "Thankfully, we've had a lot more really good years than bad years ever since."
 
Of his 29 completed campaigns, only five of them finished with a record below .500. On the flip side, 834 wins, seven NCAA tournaments and one unforgettable journey to Omaha later, Senk is still going with the same energy as that first season.
 
"In order to do the best job I can, I have to personally keep reinventing myself," he said. "I feel like I have had the competitiveness and energy to keep doing that."
 
For team No. 30, the task is simple: Keep the tradition of the previous 29 years churning.
 
"Our expectations never change," Senk said. "We expect to challenge for a top-two seed, giving us the best opportunity going into the conference tournament. Ideally, we are winning a regular-season title and peaking at the right time of year to go into an NCAA regional."
 
Last season's team was a 31-win squad. The Seawolves swept through the America East Tournament with comebacks in all three games, including erasing a four-run deficit entering the bottom of the eighth against UMass Lowell in the opener.
 
In 2020, seven of the nine starters from last year's postseason are no longer on the roster, breeding competition all over the diamond.
 
That challenging schedule opens at Texas State in exactly three week and continues at Clemson and at Southeastern Louisiana to close February.
 
America East play begins with a weekend at Hartford March 14-15.

"A lot of the competition for positions began back in the fall," Senk said. "That will continue through our very difficult early season schedule. Once we get back into the Northeast, it will play itself out."