2012-13 WBB Schedule

PHILADELPHIA - As has been custom under head coach Mike McLaughlin, the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team announced another challenging schedule on Friday - one that includes a home opener against an ACC opponent and a tournament at the home of a Big 12 opponent in addition to the Big 5 and Ivy League slate.

"We have tremendous balance in our schedule this year," McLaughlin said. "In combination with the obvious challenge of the Big 5, along with Drexel, we play a variety of leagues, including two Patriot League schools, two Northeast Conference teams, an ACC opponent and potentially a Big 12 school, among others. That gives our schedule great strength, which is imperative in preparation for Ivy League play."

Penn opens the 2012-13 campaign at Norfolk State on Nov. 10 to mark the first-ever meeting between the Quakers and Spartans. Just two days later, the Red and Blue host the ACC's Virginia Cavaliers. 

"Virginia as a home opener for us is a great test right away," McLaughlin said. "Playing an ACC school at The Palestra should be an exciting start for us."

In fact, it will be the first-ever trip to the historic Palestra for the Cavaliers, who finished sixth in the ACC and reached the quarterfinals of the WNIT last season. Virginia has won the three previous meetings between the programs. The teams met just two seasons ago when the Quakers nearly pulled off a wild upset at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Quakers will then head to West Point, N.Y., to take on Army. The Nov. 18 matchup will be the third in as many seasons between these teams - the home team won each of the previous two, including Penn's 10-point victory last year.

On Nov. 30, the Quakers will open Big 5 play with a home game against La Salle, which is followed by the first matchup with Bucknell since 2000. The  Bison visit The Palestra on Dec. 3.

That marks Penn's only home game in the month of December. The Red and Blue visit St. Francis (N.Y.) on Dec. 5, LIU-Brooklyn on Dec. 9 and cross 33rd street to visit Drexel on Dec. 21.

Just before the New Year, the Quakers head to Iowa State where the Big 12 powerhouse will host its annual Cyclone Challenge. The Cyclones lost in the NCAA First Round last season. Air Force and Alabama State will join Penn as guests at the tournament, which runs Dec. 29-30. The Quakers have had just one all-time meeting with Air Force, a 60-42 win in 2001, have never played Alabama State and were recently toppled by Iowa State in Chicago in 2009. Matchups are to be determined.

The home crowd will get to see more of the Quakers when the calendar turns to 2013. But the schedule doesn't get easier with three home games against Big 5 opposition - Saint Joseph's (Jan. 5), Villanova (Jan. 16) and Temple (Jan. 26). The first-ever matchup with Morgan State (Jan. 8) is squeezed between those Atlantic-10 and Big East opponents.

The traditional Ivy opener will once again feature Penn and Princeton. The rivals open league play for the Ivies on Jan. 12 at Jadwin Gym. That is the first of five straight Ivy road games to start the 2013 Ivy campaign. The Quakers head through New York, Feb. 1-2 at Columbia and Cornell and then visit Yale (Feb. 8) and Brown (Feb. 9) - where they will try to duplicate a dramatic weekend sweep from a year ago.

The first Ivy weekend at The Palestra is Feb. 15-16 against Harvard and Dartmouth, respectively. The following weekend, the Quakers are visited by Cornell and Columbia.

Penn wraps up its road schedule with its longest Ivy trip of the year, March 1-2 at Harvard and Dartmouth, and then returns home for the final three games of the year against Brown (March 8), Yale (March 9) and the Ivy League's traditional season finale against Princeton (March 12).

The Quakers return 10 letterwinners and two-time Ivy League scoring champion, Alyssa Baron, from the 2011-12 squad that finished with the program's highest win total in seven years (13-15, 6-8 Ivy). In addition to the best start in school history, the 2011-12 Quakers opened 5-0 at home for the first time in eight years and set a program record with seven wins before the month of January. The Quakers also posted back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Date	Opponent	Location	Time (EST)	Results	Media
Sat, Nov 10	Norfolk State	at Norfolk, Va.	4 p.m.
Mon, Nov 12	Virginia	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Sun, Nov 18	Army	at West Point, N.Y.	TBA
Fri, Nov 30	La Salle	The Palestra	TBA
Mon, Dec 03	Bucknell	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Wed, Dec 05	St. Francis (NY)	at Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.	7 p.m.
Sun, Dec 09	LIU-Brooklyn	at Brooklyn, N.Y.	2 p.m.
Fri, Dec 21	Drexel	at Philadelphia, Pa.	TBA
Iowa State Cyclone Challenge
Sat, Dec 29	Alabama State	at Ames, Iowa	TBA
Sun, Dec 30	TBA	at Ames, Iowa	TBA
Sat, Jan 05	Saint Joseph's	The Palestra	2 p.m.
Tue, Jan 08	Morgan St.	The Palestra	TBA
Sat, Jan 12	Princeton *	at Princeton, N.J.	TBA
Wed, Jan 16	Villanova	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Sat, Jan 26	Temple	The Palestra	2 p.m.
Fri, Feb 01	Columbia *	at New York, N.Y.	7 p.m.
Sat, Feb 02	Cornell *	at Ithaca, N.Y.	7 p.m.
Fri, Feb 08	Yale *	at New Haven, Conn.	7 p.m.
Sat, Feb 09	Brown *	at Providence, R.I.	7 p.m.
Fri, Feb 15	Harvard *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Sat, Feb 16	Dartmouth *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Fri, Feb 22	Cornell *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Sat, Feb 23	Columbia *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Fri, Mar 01	Dartmouth *	at Hanover, N.H.	7 p.m.
Sat, Mar 02	Harvard *	at Boston, Mass.	6 p.m.
Fri, Mar 08	Brown *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Sat, Mar 09	Yale *	The Palestra	7 p.m.
Tue, Mar 12	Princeton *	The Palestra	TBA