The Benedictine University women's basketball team's regular season is winding down, as just three Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference games remain. Two of those contests will take place this week, as the team will host Dominican University on Wednesday night and travel to Lakeland College on Saturday night.
At 14-8 overall and 14-3 in conference play, Benedictine occupies the second spot in the NACC standings, trailing first-place Wisconsin Lutheran College by one game. WLC holds the tie-breaker due to victories over the Eagles in both head-to-head meetings. Concordia University Wisconsin and Milwaukee School of Engineering are right behind the Eagles in the standings, both tied for third at 13-4. The Eagles defeated CUW twice this season and split matchups with MSOE, with the loss coming on Saturday in Lisle 70-61.
Wednesday: vs. Dominican (1-21, 0-17), 7:00 p.m.
Three seasons ago, the Stars possessed one of the strongest rosters in the NACC, compiling a 19-9 overall record, earning the second seed in the NACC Tournament, and advancing to the NACC Championship game. Since, Dominican has struggled mightily, winning just three contests and two NACC games since falling in the 2012 tournament championship. This season, Dominican's only win came back on December 20, a 62-49 victory at Illinois Institute of Technology. Despite the struggles, Dominican managed to keep things close against third-place CUW on Saturday, rallying back from 15 down to pull to within two points with four minutes to go before falling 64-56.
Dominican is one of two NACC teams Benedictine will oppose only once in NACC play, as the Eagles face all other teams aside from Rockford University two times. BenU opposed the Stars just once last season as well, winning in River Forest 68-53 behind a career-high 27 points from
Meghan Novak. Benedictine has defeated the Stars in each of the last three meetings, with Dominican last prevailing during the 2011-12 season. Dominican won in both River Forest (72-51) and Lisle (63-51) that season.
Saturday: at Lakeland (8-14, 7-10), 6:00 p.m.
The Muskies find themselves in a tight race for the conference's eighth and final NACC Tournament spot. At 8-14 overall and 7-10 in conference play, Lakeland is tied with Aurora for eighth, trail Marian University by one game for seventh, and trail both Concordia University Chicago and Edgewood College by two games for the sixth and fifth spots. With Benedictine locked in as a top-four seed and Lakeland a potential bottom-four seed, Saturday's matchup in Wisconsin could be a preview of a NACC Tournament First Round game.
Five of the last six matchups in the series have gone to Benedictine, which includes this season's matchup in Lisle back on December 13. BenU recorded its largest victory margin of the season, defeating Lakeland 68-39 and holding the Muskies to just 30.9% shooting. BenU shot 51.8% themselves and were led by Novak's 17 points. Lakeland's last win in the last series came back in 2011-12.
