Saluki Women's Basketball announces 2019-20 schedule
09/03/2019 | 10:08:00 | Women's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Seventh-year Southern Illinois women's basketball head coach Cindy Stein released the 2019-20 schedule on Tuesday.
15 home dates, 14 away contests and a neutral site game make up this year's slate. Season tickets can be purchased by calling 1-877-SALUKIS or by visiting SIUSalukis.com.
The Salukis will embark on a non-conference schedule that features 12 contests, two of which will be against opponents that advanced to the postseason a year ago in IUPUI (WNIT) and Tennessee Tech (WBI).
"I believe we have a competitive non-conference schedule that will prepare us well for conference play," Stein said.
SIU opens the 2019-20 regular season on Nov. 8 at SIUE. Southern will then travel to Indianapolis, Ind. to tangle with the IUPUI Jaguars, who went 20-12 and advanced to the WNIT a year ago. SIU defeated IUPUI, 78-73 in overtime last season.
From there, the Salukis open their 2019-20 home slate with back-to-back contests at the Banterra Center. Southern hosts Tennessee Tech on Nov. 16 before taking on the Memphis Tigers on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
SIU then travels to Ypsilanti, Mich. to take on Eastern Michigan on Sat., Nov. 23 before returning to the Banterra Center to host a pair of regional foes in St. Louis (Nov. 27) and UT Martin (Dec. 3).
The regional contests continue for the Salukis against a pair of teams they beat a season ago. Southern travels to SEMO on Dec. 7 before hosting Murray State on Dec. 15.
The highlight of the non-conference schedule comes on Dec. 19-20 when the Salukis take part in the second annual Compass Challenge. The four-team tournament, featuring Illinois' four directional schools, will be hosted this season by Northern Illinois. Southern won the inaugural Compass Challenge championship last season with wins over NIU and EIU.
Southern will conclude its non-conference schedule with an exhibition contest against William Woods on Dec. 29.
The Salukis open league play on the road, as they travel to Valparaiso on Jan. 3 before taking on Loyola on Jan. 5.
Southern will then play three-straight home games against conference teams that advanced to postseason play a year ago in Northern Iowa (Jan. 10), Drake (Jan. 12) and Missouri State (Jan. 17).
"The exciting thing about the Missouri Valley Conference, which is also the scariest thing about our league, is that from top to bottom everyone is going to be a lot better," Stein said. "It is going to be a very competitive season."
The Salukis will close out the 2019-20 regular season against Valparaiso on Sat., March 7. The MVC Tournament returns to the Quad Cities for the fifth-straight season from March 12-15.
