Carson-Newman Announces 2010-11 Women's Basketball Schedule
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — The Carson-Newman women's basketball team will play six teams that reached last season's NCAA Tournament as a part of its 2010-11 schedule, Lady Eagle head coach Dean Walsh announced Tuesday.
The schedule is one of the toughest of Walsh's career at Mossy Creek, as he enters his 10th season. C-N will face Lander (two games), Delta State, Lenoir-Rhyne (two games), Tusculum (two games), Newberry (two games) and Anderson (two games), which makes 11 of its 28 games against teams with NCAA Tournament experience. Tusculum advanced all the way to the Elite Eight.
Both Lander (No. 8) and Tusculum (No. 9) finished last year ranked in the top 10 of the final USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, while Lander was No. 11.
The Lady Eagles, who went 24-7 in 2009-10 and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division II Southeast Region Tournament, will go through one of the strongest exhibition slates in the country to begin the season as they will travel to three Division I programs that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
C-N opens its exhibition schedule at the University of Tennessee on Nov. 2 in Knoxville, Tenn. The meeting will mark the seventh straight year the Lady Eagles have played the Lady Vols. Tennessee, an eight-time national champion, earned a No. 1 seed to last year's national tournament.
The Lady Eagles will also face Duke, a No. 2 seed last season, on Nov. 7 in Durham, N.C. and North Carolina, which is coached by C-N alum Sylvia Hatchell, on Nov. 8 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
C-N will begin regular season play on Nov. 13 against USC-Aiken in the Southeast Regional Challenge in Greenwood, S.C. The Lady Eagles' home opener will be against King College on Nov. 16 at Holt Fieldhouse.
C-N opens South Atlantic Conference play on Dec. 4 at Catawba and will wrap up regular season play at home against Anderson on Feb. 26. The SAC Tournament will begin on March 2.
