At 10-7 overall and 10-2 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play, the Benedictine University women's basketball team currently sits in second place in the NACC standings. This week, Benedictine will play two of its eight remaining conference games: Wednesday night at home against Alverno College and on the road on Saturday against Edgewood College.
 
The Eagles split a pair of games this past week, defeating ninth-place Aurora University and falling to first-place Wisconsin Lutheran College. BenU turned the ball over just eight times and outrebounded Aurora 44-39 in Tuesday's 52-48 victory, but fell 59-52 on Saturday and shot just 31.8% from the floor. Meghan Novak led the Eagles in scoring in both matchups, tallying 31 total points on the week.
  
Alverno set school record for both NACC (14) and total wins (19) last season, but have been unable to duplicate the success in 2014-15. The Inferno currently occupy the 11th place in the NACC standings, having won just two conference games this season (vs. Dominican University, vs. Lakeland College). However, the Inferno have played better of late, defeating Lakeland 84-75 on January 14 and losing close games against Concordia University Chicago (95-89, January 20) and Marian University (70-66 in overtime, January 24).
 
While Alverno has been a successful program over the past few seasons, the Eagles have won five straight over the Milwaukee school and have not lost to the Inferno since the 2010-11 season. Novak has had good success in the series, averaging 11.6 points per game in five career contests. Wednesday's game will be the first of the season between the two schools, as the teams will square off again on February 5 in Milwaukee.
  
Edgewood has been one of the NACC's strongest teams since the conference was formed in 2006, having qualified for six of eight NACC Tournaments. After a bit of a slow start to the 2014-15 season, Edgewood appears to have picked up steam, winning five out of the last seven games and moving into a tie for sixth place with Marian. Four of the five victories have come by double-digits, with the only exception being a nine-point victory against Rockford College on January 14.
 
Benedictine opened up its conference schedule back on November 29 with a 75-63 win over Edgewood, which was the team's first win in the Battle of the Eagles in the last six meetings. Nicole Botich recorded the first of her eight NACC double-digit scoring games, leading Benedictine with 18 points and eight rebounds in the win.