The Benedictine University women's basketball team began the 2014-2015 season on Saturday and will waste no time getting back to work. Benedictine will travel to Monmouth College for a Tuesday night contest and compete in the Main View Tipoff Tournament at Manchester College on Friday and Saturday.
On Saturday, BenU opened the season at the Dan and Ada Rice Center with a 64-58 loss to Albion College.
Meghan Novak, who led Benedictine with 19 points, scored the team's first 14 points of the game and helped BenU build a nine-point lead late in the first half. However, Albion cut the deficit to just one by halftime and outscored the Eagles 37-22 in the second half.
Shannon Ryan tallied 10 points off the bench in her first collegiate game, and starting point guard
Alanna Ferry contributed five points eight rebounds, and five assists.
Tuesday: at Monmouth College (0-1), 7:00 p.m.
Benedictine will travel west to Monmouth, Illinois on Tuesday night to face a tough non-conference foe. Hailing from the Midwest Conference, the Fighting Scots have complied a 55-21 record over the past three seasons and reached the conference tournament final in each of those years. Monmouth began the season on Saturday hosting Wartburg College, falling 76-55.
The Eagles and Fighting Scots met for the second game of last season as well, with Monmouth prevailing 74-57 in Lisle. Monmouth built a 38-22 lead at halftime that built up to 27 in the second half before BenU went on a late run.
Michelle Batty led the Eagles with 10 points in the matchup, connecting on both of her three-point attempts.
Briana Hamilton added nine points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Friday and Saturday: Main View Tipoff Tournament
The Eagles will spend the weekend in Manchester, Indiana competing in the Main View Tipoff Tournament. Benedictine takes on host
Manchester University at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Friday's game will be the Spartans' first game of the season, as the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference school is coming off of a 14-13 season. Manchester reached the Semifinals of the HCAC Tournament last year, falling to Transylvania 72-62.
Depending on Friday's result, the Eagles will oppose either the
University of Chicago or
Capital University of Ohio on Saturday. Both teams made the "others receiving votes" category of the d3hoops.com preseason poll. Chicago finished 15-10 last season and dropped the season opener on Saturday to #14 UW-Whitewater 86-68. Capital had a strong season as well in 2013-2014 at 19-9, but also suffered a Saturday defeat, losing 70-67 to Wittenberg University.
