Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Basketball Releases 2008-09 Schedule
8/15/2008 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Aug. 15, 2008
2008-09 Bucknell Women's Basketball Schedule
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Non-conference games against teams from nine conferences, including three of the top five teams in the final 2007-08 Colonial Athletic Association standings, dot the 2008-09 Bucknell women's basketball schedule, which was announced Friday. Additionally, the Bison will travel to Penn State to play the Nittany Lions for the second consecutive year.
Bucknell, which won the Patriot League Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history last year, plays just three home games before the calendar flips to January, but a four-game homestand early in the year's first month will keep the Bison at home for nearly three weeks.
The season, which will be the 12th with Kathy Fedorjaka at the helm, opens on Friday, Nov. 14, at George Mason with the first of three consecutive road games. Bucknell will also play at Yale and Fordham before its first game at Sojka Pavilion, a 5 p.m. outing against Drexel. That contest will be played as the first game of a doubleheader with the men, who face Old Dominion later that night.
After a road contest at Loyola (Md.), the Bison will return home to face Towson on Dec. 3. Their first two home opponents posted a combined 40-22 record in 2007-08. Bucknell's only other home contest before Jan. 1 is Dec. 19 opposite first-time opponent Wofford.
Other non-conference road games before final exams in December will be against Loyola (Md.) (Nov. 29), Howard (Dec. 6) and Penn State (Dec. 9). It will be Bucknell's fifth all-time game against the Nittany Lions and their first in State College since the 2002 Preseason WNIT.
Road games at James Madison (Dec. 21) and Saint Francis (Pa.) (Dec. 28) round out the road non-conference slate. The Dukes posted 24 wins last season, marking the most by a 2008-09 Bison opponent.
Home matchups with Buffalo and Cornell the first week of January kick off a four-game homestand and conclude the non-league portion of the schedule. It will be the fifth consecutive year the Bison and Bulls will meet, while it marks the eighth time in the last decade Bucknell and Cornell will face each other.
The 14-game Patriot League season kicks off Saturday, Jan. 10, with a home game against Navy. Four days later American visits Sojka Pavilion.
A three-game road trip, equaling the longest of the season, begins Jan. 17 at Holy Cross in a rematch of the 2008 Patriot League Tournament title game. The Bison will also travel to Lafayette and Colgate before returning to Lewisburg for a two-game set against Lehigh and Army that wraps up the busy month of January that features nine games.
The second half of the Patriot League schedule mirrors the first half, but with games played at opposite sites. The Bison will play at Navy and American, come home for contests opposite Holy Cross, Lafayette and Colgate, and then wrap up the regular season at Lehigh and Army.
The Patriot League Tournament will once again follow a format where the first two rounds are played on back-to-back days at an on-campus arena, while the championship game will take place on the home court of the highest remaining seed. The first two rounds are slated for March 7-8 at Lehigh, while the championship is set for March 11.
Fans are asked to keep in mind that the Patriot League's television schedule has yet to be announced. The formulation of that schedule and the impact on the Bucknell men's basketball schedule could necessitate moving scheduled game dates.
