Murray State University Athletics
Women’s Basketball Unveils 2010-11 Schedule
8/16/2010 2:02:42 PM | Women's Basketball
For the first time in four years, the Murray State women's basketball team will open the season in the friendly confines of the Regional Special Events Center, as the Racers have released their 2010-11 schedule.
The Racers will host St. Catharine and Mid Continent Nov. 13 & 15 before hitting the road for the next month.
“We are excited about the opportunity to open the season at home,” said head coach Rob Cross. “These games should start the season on a good foot and with the game against Mid Continent being a double-header with the men's team it should help build excitement for our program.”
The MSU schedules also includes regional rivalries and nationally known programs.
The Racers first road outing will be at regional-rival Evansville (Nov. 17) and the team will then travel to face Saint Louis (Nov. 21).
“The games against Evansville and St. Louis allow us to play against highly competitive programs from the Missouri Valley and the Atlantic 10 conferences,” said Cross. “These two games, along with our renewed regional-rivalry with Southern Illinois will help prepare us for the Ohio Valley Conference season.”
The next road trip will be to Southern Mississippi to participate in the Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic where MSU's first opponent will be Kentucky (Nov. 26), a team that advanced to the NCAA Elite 8 in 2010. Louisiana-Lafayette is the other team in the tournament field.
“We are excited to head down to the Gulf region where we will get to play a top-10 program in Kentucky,” Cross added. “Playing top programs like Kentucky and Purdue will help prepare us not only for the rigors of the OVC, but also for the size and athleticism that we may potentially see in the NCAA tournament.”
The road trip continues into the month of December when the Racers travel to Eastern Kentucky (Dec. 2) and Morehead State (Dec. 4) for the early Ohio Valley Conference games. The final road game of the seven game road swing is scheduled for Dec. 12 in West Lafayette, Ind., where MSU is set to face perennial NCAA power Purdue.
The Racers will then return to the RSEC for one game against regional-rival Southern Illinois (Dec. 18) before going to face UT Martin (Dec. 22) in the last game before the Christmas holiday.
After the break, MSU will have a four-game home stand at the RSEC beginning with SIU Edwardsville (Dec. 30). The first game in 2011 will be against IUPUI (Jan. 4), with the rest of the OVC schedule kicking off with games against Tennessee State (Jan. 6) and Austin Peay (Jan. 8).
The final non-conference game of the season is set for Jan. 25 at SIU Edwardsville, as the teams will be playing a home-and-away series to prepare for next year when they will face each other as conference opponents for the first time.
The final home games of the 2010-11 campaign are set for Feb. 24 & 26 against Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky.
This year the OVC Tournament will all be contested at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., from March 2-5. The top two teams in the regular-season standings will earn byes into the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. This is the first season that the conference will bring all eight teams to one venue for the entire tournament, as in the past the first-round games have been played on campus sites.
