A challenging 29-game regular-season schedule, which includes two in-season tournaments and a home game against 2012 NCAA Sweet 16 contender St. John's, is in store for the Quinnipiac University women's basketball team for the 2012-13 season, announced on Thursday, July 19 by Head Coach Tricia Fabbri.
"Once again, I think our non-conference schedule is a daunting one," said Coach Fabbri. "Our non-conference philosophy has always been to test ourselves and prepare us in the best way possible for the conference schedule. The college experience should be about challenging yourself as a student-athlete. We did just that last year in California, beating Minnesota and a tough host team, St. Mary's. It was a defining moment for us and proved to us how good we were. We hope playing teams from traditionally strong conferences will again bring out our best."

Quinnipiac, coming off a spectacular 22-win season and its second trip to the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT), opens its campaign on Sunday, Nov. 11 with James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va. The Dukes concluded a remarkable campaign in 2011-12, compiling 29 wins and a trip to the WNIT Championship game. James Madison met Oklahoma State in the finals and fell eight-points shy of a national postseason title. After that, the Bobcats will head up north for a Friday afternoon (Nov. 16) showdown at UMass in Amherst, Mass. In 2011-12, Quinnipiac handed UMass a three-point loss in Hamden, Conn. to even the all-time series up at one apiece.
The Bobcats will enjoy a week off before opening competition at the TD Bank Sports Center. Quinnipiac returns to the hardwood for Atlantic-10 member Rhode Island (Nov. 24) at the Bank for a non-conference matinée. Last year's meeting in Kingston, R.I. featured an overtime thriller where the Bobcats prevailed with a 72-67 victory. Four days later, QU heads over the town border into New Haven to face in-state rival, Yale University. The Bobcats defeated the Bulldogs last year and improved to 9-7 in the all-time series.