Salve Regina women's basketball schedule for 2014-15
NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University women's basketball tips off its 2014-15 season against Regis College in a tournament hosted by Brandeis University on Saturday, November 15 at 3 p.m.
The Seahawks, 14-13 in 2013-14, face an opponent which had been a longtime member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) in Regis (from 1988 to 2011). It will be the first meeting between the two schools in the sport since Salve Regina won, 56-42, on February 24, 2011, in a conference semifinal before the Seahawks won their second of three titles under current head coach Cori Hughes.
"We play a strong non-conference schedule," says Hughes. "Regis, Brandeis, Bowdoin, Middlebury are going to be great tests leading into our league competition."
Salve Regina owns a 29-17 edge in the all-time series with Regis, including winning the last 17 consecutive meetings. The Brandeis Judges finished with the same record as Salve Regina last year, with their most-impressive win coming as the eighth seed in the ECAC New England Championships and knocking off the top seed Emmanuel College.
Junior guard Meaghan Harden (Sandwich, Mass.) seeks to become the fastest Seahawk to amass 1,000 career points; she enters the season with 993 points in 56 games (17.7 ppg). Harden set the single-season scoring mark last year (527 points in 27 games; 19.5 ppg).
The Seahawks have never beaten the Judges (0-4) although meeting just once since 1985 (a 69-53 loss in Waltham, Mass., on November 18, 2005). Mount Ida faces Brandeis in the opener of the Judges' tournament; the Seahawks and Mustangs have met only once with Salve Regina besting Mount Ida, 59-51, in the Keene State tip-off tournament in 2011.
Following a road trip to Providence, R.I., to face the Wildcats of Johnson & Wales University, the Seahawks come home to Newport for their first encounter at the Rodgers Recreation Center. Since the wood-shingled building became the new home for Salve Regina basketball in 2000, the Seahawks are 140-38 (.787) at the Rodgers Recreation Center.
WHERE'S THE VIDEO? |
|
Salve Regina hosts Middlebury College on Saturday, November 22 (2 p.m.). The Panthers visit Newport for the first time and face the Seahawks for only the second time in women's basketball - Salve Regina won, 64-46, on January 3, 2012, in Castine, Maine.
Salve Regina, which set a program-record in 2013-14 for free-throw percentage (.700; 402 FTM - 574 FTA), is establishing a charity stripe charity to support Mount St. Joseph's freshman Lauren Hill in her personal goal to play college basketball and, and as a result, raise awareness of pediatric brain cancer research and resources for children and families facing Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) which is now an incurable condition. Lauren and her family have chosen The Cure Starts Now Foundation as the recipient of the funds that have been raised in recognition of Lauren's courage and incredible strength (details to follow).
Salve Regina then hosts the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving - November 25 (5:30 p.m.). The Corsairs have won the last three meetings, each with former Seahawk head coach and now UMass Dartmouth director of athletics, Amanda Van Voorhis, at the helm. Van Voorhis gives way to first-year head coach, Matthew Ducharme, her former lead assistant.
After Thanksgiving, the Seahawks travel to Brunswick, Maine, to face the Polar Bears of Bowdoin College. These programs last met in Morrell Gymnasium on Friday, March 4, 2011, during first-round action of the NCAA Division III Championships.
In that game, the 2010-11 CCC Player of the Year Erin Phillips scored a game-high 22 points to finish her career as the school's second all-time leading scorer (1,498 points). Phillips will once again be on the sidelines when Salve Regina hosts Wentworth Institute of Technology in the first CCC contest of the season on Wednesday, December 3 (5:30 p.m.). Phillips is in her fourth season as an assistant with the Leopards. Salve Regina owns a 42-6 all-time mark against Wentworth, but the Leopards won the last time they visited the Rodgers Recreation Center, 56-51, on January 29, 2014. Five of the Leopards' six wins in the series have come in Newport.
The Seahawks finish the fall semester with two more league games, at Nichols on Saturday, December 6 (2 p.m.), and home against Roger Williams on Tuesday, December 9 (5:30 p.m.).
After Christmas, 15 of the 16 games are conference opponents. The lone non-league game will be on Saturday, January 3, 2015, at UMass Boston. The Seahawks are 1-2 all-time against the Beacons with the lone win coming in a blowout, 89-36, on November 26, 1998. The 53-point victory is the second largest in program history (78-23 win over Wentworth on January 23, 2001).
Hughes enters her eighth season as head coach of the Seahawks; she has compiled a 125-69 record (.644) in seven years with four trips to the CCC finals and three conference championships that advanced Salve Regina to the NCAA Division III Championships in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
Since 2011, the basketball schedule in the conference features home and away for 18 games, while each school adds up to seven non-league games for a 25-game schedule. The annual alumni game is set for Saturday, February 7, 2015, before the Seahawks host the Nor'easters.