Aug. 18, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

Complete 2008-09 Schedule in PDF Format

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Fourteen home games and the season opener at Arizona State in the Preseason WNIT highlight the 2008-09 Cleveland State women's basketball schedule.

A majority of the schedule was released on Monday (Aug. 18) with two exhibition games still to be added.

"We made an effort to play a much tougher, national caliber schedule, highlighted by our season opener at Arizona State in the preseason WNIT," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "The opportunity to play in the preseason WNIT is one that has never been afforded to our program and we are determined to go out and compete at that level."

The Vikings, who won the Horizon League Championship last season and advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history, will begin the 2008-09 season on Nov. 14 with an opening round game in the Preseason WNIT at Arizona State.

CSU will then return to Cleveland for its home opener on Nov. 18 against Eastern Michigan before playing two more contests in the Preseason WNIT from Nov. 20-22 at a site to be determined.

Following a home contest with Toledo on Nov. 26, the Vikings will conclude the month of November with a contest at American, on Nov. 30. The Vikings defeated American, 65-63, last season in Cleveland on a Kailey Klein buzzer beater.

A short trip to Akron on Dec. 3 is followed by a home game against Kent State three days later (Dec. 6) before roadtrips to Ohio State on Dec. 15 and Ohio on Dec. 19.

The Vikings conclude the 2008 portion of their schedule, as well as their nonconference contests, with home games against Niagara on Dec. 21 and Buffalo on Dec. 29.

The league slate begins after the new year when CSU travels to Indiana for games at Butler on Jan. 3 and at Valparaiso two days later (Jan. 5).

The Horizon League home opener is on Jan. 8 against Green Bay.

"The league is continuing to get better and better and it may be stronger than ever this year," Peterson Abiad said. "We put together a difficult preseason schedule to help prepare us for the challenges we are going to face in the league this year."

Following are some notes on the 2008-09 schedule.

• The Vikings will play five games against teams that advanced to postseason play last season, including one game against NCAA teams Arizona State and Ohio State. CSU also plays American once and Green Bay twice. Both teams advanced to the WNIT last season.
• The Vikings will open the season on the road for the first time since the 2005-06 season and just the second time in the last six seasons.
• The opener at Pac 10 power Arizona State means the Vikings will play two consecutive games against teams from that conference. CSU was defeated by Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Championship to conclude last season.
• CSU will play in-state rivals Toledo, Akron, Kent State, Ohio State, Ohio, Youngstown State and Wright State a total of nine times.
• The Vikings play perhaps their most difficult stretch in league play right off the bat with games at Butler and Valparaiso and home games against Green Bay and Milwaukee over an eight-day period (Jan. 3-10).
• The contest against Kent State will be the first meeting between the teams since Dec. 27, 1994, while the match-up at Ohio State will mark the first time CSU has played the Buckeyes since the 2000-01 season opener.
• The CSU men's and women's basketball teams will play five doubleheaders during the year, all of which will come in league play. Three of the doubleheaders will come on a Saturday, Milwaukee (Jan. 10), UIC (Jan. 31) and Youngstown State (Feb. 14) with the other two coming on a Thursday, Green Bay (Jan. 8) and Loyola (Jan. 29).
• CSU will be making its first-ever appearance in the Preseason WNIT.
• CSU will play at least one game on every day of the week this season.
• The annual Horizon League Championship, which CSU will be defending, will begin with two opening round games at campus sites on March 9. The championship will be played March 15.