Women's Basketball Releases 2011-12 Schedule

Fort Wayne, IN - IPFW head basketball coach Chris Paul has announced the program's 2011-12 schedule while includes ten games against teams that advanced into postseason play a season ago.

"It is a challenging schedule from the start when you open up at a BIG EAST opponent in the University of Cincinnati," said Paul. "We are going to get tested right away. It is a challenging but manageable schedule because we feel like we have a pretty good basketball team this year. We set the schedule up to play some good high-quality competition in the non-conference season. We try to test ourselves some high-majors, and then try to play as many mid-majors from the midwest as possible to prepare us to make a run at the Summit League Championship this year."

Last season the Mastodons set school NCAA Division I records for wins (20), Summit League wins (13), home wins (10), and had the second best record of NCAA Division I teams in the state of Indiana. The program hosted its first postseason basketball game when the 'Dons fell to Cleveland State in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) after falling in the Summit League Semifinals.

The season opens on November 11 when the Mastodons face off against the Bearcats of Cincinnati in the Queen City with a 7:00 PM tip-off. Last season the Bearcats went 9-20, falling in the first round of the BIG EAST tournament.

The team's season opener against Youngstown State follows two days later. A year prior, the Penguins went 6-24 in former Mastodon assistant coach Bob Bolden's first season at the helm of the program, including a 73-61 IPFW win in Youngstown a season ago.

A mid-week road trip to East Lansing, Michigan follows with a November 15 match-up with the Spartans who went 27-6 in, winning the Big Ten Tournament before falling in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

A five-game in ten-day span continues with a home game against the Grace College Lancers, an NAIA squad that went 17-17, finishing fifth in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) postseason tournament before Butler closes the run with a game at the Gates Center on November 20. Last year the Bulldogs finished 20-14 in the regular season, falling in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).

The Mastodons will look to avenge a heartbreaking double overtime loss from last year against Hampton University at the Gates Center for a post-Thanksgiving, Saturday, November 26 game. The Pirates, who went 25-7 and won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) regular season and tournament title, fell in overtime in the NCAA First Round game to the Kentucky Wildcats last year.

Five days later IPFW will welcome the University of South Dakota into the Summit League for the program's first contest in the new conference at the Memorial Coliseum in a doubleheader with the men's team. Last year, as a member of the Great West Conference, South Dakota went 20-12 and lost in the first round of the Great West Tournament, before falling in the second round of the WBI.

Saturday, December 3 is homecoming for the IPFW basketball programs, as the teams will play a doubleheader with the UMKC Kangaroos, the women's game scheduled to start at 4:00 PM. Last year the Mastodons and Kangaroos faced off three times, with each team winning on its home court, before IPFW clinched the series rubber match with a 68-53 win in the first round of the Summit League Tournament.

A trip across the state to Valparaiso snaps the four-game home streak on December 6. Last season IPFW topped the Crusaders 73-65, who ended the year with a 7-24 record and a loss in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament.

The Mastodons host SIU Edwardsville on December 11, who picked up a 72-61 win in Edwardsville, Illinois last season, spurning the Cougars to a 11-19 overall record. The 2011-12 season will be the first in the regular season Ohio Valley Conference play for the Cougars.

Trips to Detroit and West Lafayette follow to kick off a four-game road swing, with the Mastodons facing off at the newly constructed Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall on December 18. Last season Detroit finished the year 13-18, falling in the second round of the Horizon League Tournament.

Four days later IPFW faces its second Big Ten opponent of the season in Purdue University, who went 21-12 before falling in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to tournament top seed Connecticut.

A pre-new years swing follows to Fargo, North Dakota and Brookings, South Dakota. IPFW faces North Dakota State on December 29, a year after sweeping the season series for the first time since becoming Summit League members, while a New Years Eve game follows against South Dakota State, who knocked IPFW out of the Summit League Tournament last season, before taking the tournament crown a day later.

After the four-game road stand, the Mastodons remain at home for its next four games, the first two against Western Illinois and IUPUI on January 7 and 9, respectively, before the Mastodons host the Oakland Grizzlies on January 14.

Two days later IPFW faces its final non-conference opponent in Longwood University. Last season the Lancers went 7-23 as an independent, including a 78-62 IPFW win in Farmville, Virginia a season earlier.

After the team's longest home stand the team takes off on its longest road trip of the year, traveling through each of the four time zones of the contiguous United States.The first leg of the road trip comes with a trip from Fort Wayne to Cedar City, Utah for a January 21 game against the Thunderbirds. Two days later the 'Dons face off against 2010-11 Summit League regular-season champion Oral Roberts, who went 23-11 on the year, advancing to the third round of the WNIT before falling to Arkansas.

Back-to-back games at the Gates Center follow against South Dakota State and North Dakota State on January 28 and 30, before a weekend trip to IUPUI and Western Illinois. The women's/men's doubleheader between the Mastodons and Jaguars on February 4 will be a warm-up for the 2012 Super Bowl, played in Indianapolis a day later.

A single-game weekend comes on the following weekend when IPFW travels to Oakland, before the squad has its final home weekend of the year, the first game on February 18 against Oral Roberts in the school's fourth annual Pink Out contest in which funds and donations will be given to help breast cancer research. Two days later the program will honor the three seniors on the team, Stephanie Rosado, Anne Boese, and Sarah Haluska, on Senior Day.

The regular season is capped on February 25 and 27 with a western trio to face off against the South Dakota Coyotes and UMKC, respectively.

The next weekend the Summit League Tournament opens in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the league's top eight teams competing for an automatic berth into the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

~Dons~

Purdue University Fort Wayne Athletics

Related News

Related Videos