By Jake Geiger, staff writer

Xavier women’s basketball has had a rollercoaster season so far with a few key wins and a rash of postponements due to COVID-19.

The Musketeers returned to action last Saturday after being off 20 days because of COVID-19 postponements with other Big East schools.

 On Saturday, Xavier fell to the Seton Hall Pirates 85-59 in South Orange, N.J.

The Musketeers got off to a slow start as they were down 45-16 heading into halftime. Xavier did manage to win the second half by two points, but ultimately lost by by 26 in the end. 

Leading the way for Seton Hall was graduate student Andrea Espinoza-Hunter with 28 points. Helping out Espinoza-Hunter were guards Desiree Elmore and Mya Jackson with 13 points each. 

With the win, Seton Hall went to 8-3 overall and 6-2 in Big East Conference. 

It was not the cleanest game in terms of managing the ball, as Xavier committed 28 turnovers compared to 24 for the Pirates. 

Seton Hall also outrebounded Xavier 44-33. For the Musketeers, guard Nia Clark had 14 points while making four three-pointers. 

Junior guard Carrie  Gross had seven points, while Kae Satterfield, Aaliyah Dunham and Deja Ross added six points each for Xavier. The Musketeers fell to 4-5 overall and 1-4 in the Big East this season with this loss. 

This past Monday, the Xavier Athletics Department announced that the women’s basketball team would be on a temporary pause due to COVID-19 related issues.

With this pause, four games have already been postponed within the week against DePaul, Villanova, Marquette and Providence. 

To date, the Musketeers now have had  seven total games postponed due to COVID-19. This is Xavier’s first COVID-19 issue within the team. 

The team needs to play 13 games to be eligible for the NCAA Tournament. The next scheduled game for Xavier is Feb. 6.