The Benedictine University women's basketball team will take the court for two Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference games this week. BenU will travel to Milwaukee for a 7:00 p.m. matchup on Wednesday against Alverno and will face Edgewood at home on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.

After splitting a pair of games this past week, the Eagles (7-10, 7-5) sit in fifth place in the conference standings. Last Tuesday, the Eagles defeated sixth-place Aurora 64-62 at the Dan and Ada Rice Center, which was sealed by a Kam Haifleigh charge with two seconds left. Benedictine traveled to Wisconsin Lutheran on Saturday and held a 14-point first half lead against the second-place Warriors, but could not hang on and fell 65-51. Both games this week hold large importance, as the Eagles will face the two teams ahead of them in the NACC standings.

Wednesday's matchup at fourth-place Alverno (12-6, 9-4) figures to be another tight game between the Eagles and Inferno. Benedictine has won all four meetings over the past three seasons, but each game has been decided by single digits. That includes last season's first round conference tournament game, in which the Eagles won 53-42. All four matchups have been of the low scoring variety as well, with Benedictine averaging 54.5 points in those contests compared to Alverno's 48.

The highest scoring matchup out of the four victories came in BenU's NACC opener this season. Benedictine came out on top 61-56 behind 15 points from junior guard Vincenza Ranallo and 13 points from junior point guard Alanna Ferry. Alverno's Devon Gorman (16.6ppg) and Jamie Hoernke (16.0ppg), who are both rank in the top five in the NACC in points per game, were held below season averages.

On Saturday, Benedictine will return home for Hall of Fame Night. BenU will oppose the Eagles of Edgewood (8-10, 8-5), who sit half a game ahead of BenU in the conference standings. Since starting the season off 0-4, Edgewood has gone 8-6. Edgewood has jumped to fifth place after winning five out of the last six games, with the only loss in that span being a two-point defeat at first place Concordia-Wisconsin.

Benedictine and Edgewood met back on November 30, with Edgewood winning 57-56. Edgewood's Rachel Pope scored her only two points of the game on a jumper with two seconds remaining to give her team the home victory. BenU sophomore post player Briana Hamilton had a career high 22 points in the loss, while junior guard Meghan Novak added 12 points.