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.

Tickets for the annual Quinnipiac-Yale women's basketball can be pruchsed for just $2 today. The tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m at the TD Bank Sports Center and this should be a good one. Yale is coming off a dominant 72-41 win over NEC ream St. Francis, N.Y.
Freshman guard Sarah Halejian scored 14 points, her highest output in her short Yale career, to help lead Yale to the win. She also matched a season-high with three rebounds and added two steals in the victory. Thanks to that performance, Halejian was named the Ivy League Co-Player of the Week Monday afternoon.

"Sarah is a gifted offensive player and is becoming a very strong defender as well," said Chris Gobrecht, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954, Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "It is great to be able to get such significant contributions from our freshmen."

In her fourth start of the season, Halejian scored eight of her 14 points in the second half, helping the Bulldogs outscore the Terriers 44-20 in the second half. Halejian scored her 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting with one 3-pointer and a 1-for-1 showing at the free-throw line. She was 3-for-4 from the floor in the second half, including a perfect 1-for-1 from 3-point range and 1-for-1 from the line.

Today's game can be seen on cable sports network NESN.