By: Adam Purvis ~Staff Writer~

After the kickoff of this upcoming basketball season with Muskie Madness, the women’s basketball team is getting ready for its first matchups of the season. The team finished last season 18-15, defeating Georgetown in the first round of the Big East Tournament, and had a narrow victory during the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. The Muskies are set to play 29 games total, 11 non-conference and 18 conference, before the Big East Tournament.

The start of the season this time around is happening in a special way. The first game of the year is going to be here in Cincinnati to honor Lauren Hill and her inspirational actions in the Lauren Hill Tipoff Classic on Nov. 14. The matchup is going to be against Evansville University while Mount St. Joseph, Hill’s team, will face off against Hiram College.

The team will then head to Ann Arbor to compete against Michigan following the classic on Nov. 19, which is the only away game in the first 13 games of the season for the Musketeers. To finish off November, the Musketeers will host three games in the next week against Maryland Eastern Shore, Southeastern Louisiana University and Binghamton University, who the team defeated 89-71 last year and who is one of three non-conference teams on the schedule that the Musketeers played last season.

December will start with games against Tennessee Tech and Middle Tennessee on Dec. 3 and Dec. 6, respectively. The team suffered a loss to Middle Tennessee last year but will work to change that this year. Radford University will travel to Cincinnati to challenge Xavier on Dec. 9 in the last game before the Shootout.

The Crosstown Shootout will be on Dec. 13 at the Cintas Center. Last year, the Musketeers pulled off a tight victory by just one point in one of their best games of the season. Following the Crosstown Shootout, two more matches will happen against Howard University and Kennesaw State University on Dec. 19 and 21 to end non-conference play and head into the holidays.

Conference play will start off at home against Georgetown on Dec. 29 and will continue until the final day of February against Georgetown, ending conference play before the Big East Tournament in Washington, D.C. Games will be played along the way against Butler, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Marquette, DePaul, Creighton and Providence.

With the three-point contest and scrimmage over, the women’s team is looking forward to a new season and a great way to start it by honoring Lauren Hill in the Lauren Hill Tipoff Classic next month.