University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Basketball Announces A-10 Dates
09/17/2009 | Women's Basketball
Sept. 17, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -
The University of Richmond announced the dates of its 2009-10 Atlantic 10 Conference women's basketball schedule Thursday afternoon.
The Spiders announced their non-conference schedule a couple of weeks ago, which includes facing the defending national champion UConn Huskies in a tournament over Thanksgiving break. Game times will be announced at a later date.
Richmond opens its conference slate with La Salle at home on Jan 9th, before traveling to UMass for its first away conference game on Jan 16th. The Spiders host seven conference games and travel to seven road sites. The Atlantic 10 tournament will be played March 5th-8th at a neutral site for the first time in league history at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
"I am excited about the conference schedule," said head coach Michael Shafer "We have a very challenging schedule as we get five road games against post season A-10 teams from last year. I believe that our league continues to get better, though it will be a difficult task to put eight teams in post season again. However, I do believe we have at least that many teams that will be competing for post-season play this year. The reality of our league is that every night we will be playing a tough opponent."
Ten A-10 games will be nationally televised on CBS College Sports Network, including the semifinals of the 2010 Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tournament. The Spiders will play the 49ers of Charlotte and the Saint Louis Bilikens on CBS College Sports Network.
"I am also very excited to be playing on CBSC-TV two times," said Shafer. "I am excited about the exposure that our team will receive as we will play both Charlotte and Saint Louis on television."
The Spiders enter the 2009-10 season after coming off of one of the most successful campaigns in program history. Last season the Spiders posted a 24-10 record, marking the most wins since the 1988-89 season and third best overall record in Richmond women's basketball history. Richmond appeared in its first ever A-10 Championship game and earned the school's fourth bid to the Women's National Invitational tournament.
Richmond returns all five starters from last year's A-10 Tournament runner-up team, including All Conference first team selection junior Brittani Shells. Shells returns as the Spiders' top scorer at 15.1 ppg. The Spiders open with Western Carolina Nov. 13th in the Robins Center.
