Penn women's hoops 2014-15 schedule released

 

After releasing the key opening game of its 2014–15 schedule midway through the summer, Penn women’s basketball released the rest of its slate Tuesday afternoon. And rather unsurprisingly, it’s fairly similar to last year.

The nonconference schedule features plenty of familiar faces, as the Quakers will go up against the Big Five — against whom they finished 2-2 last year — and local rival Drexel once again. The toughest of those matchups will likely be St. Joe’s, who finished 23-10 on the season and earned a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Red and Blue had one of their most impressive seasons in Big Five play last season, with their only two losses coming by a combined 10 points. Penn’s win over La Salle was its first at Tom Gola Arena since 1973-74.

In addition to the usual lineup of Philadelphia schools, Penn will face off against UMBC, New Hampshire and Hampton — a fellow 12-seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament — in the Palestra. The game against Hampton will provide the Quakers with a strong nonconference test in early December.

Penn also added Navy and Lafayette as road games for the season.

With three NCAA Tournament foes and a handful of programs that played in the WNIT, the Quakers now have nine games against teams that played in the postseason last year.

The Ivy slate begins and ends with double-headers with the men’s team against Princeton, starting with a Jan. 10 trip to New Jersey.

If this season plays out at all like last year, the season-ending matchup against Princeton at the Palestra will hold plenty of weight in the Ivy League standings. For those who have somehow already forgotten, last year saw Penn travel to Princeton for a de facto Ivy League championship game, which the Quakers won.

Bookended by two exciting games and filled with some interesting nonconference matchups, the schedule for Penn women’s basketball will provide the challenges necessary to prepare the team for the late season push in their Ivy title defense.

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