UMBC

Head coach Phil Stern's Retrievers will defend their America East title this season.

BALTIMORE-The UMBC women’s basketball team today announced its 2007-08 schedule, highlighted by non-conference games against tough in-state and regional rivals. The Retrievers will host 13 home games, including the season opener against national power George Washington on Friday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. In all, the defending America East champions will face five teams that advanced to postseason play in 2006-07.

“We feel that we’ve upgraded our non-conference schedule in hopes of being ready for the rigors of the America East,” UMBC head coach Phil Stern said. “We look forward to being in the new position of having a target on our back as the defending champions of the America East and we know that every game, as usual, will be a battle.”

George Washington, ranked No. 11 in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, earned its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth last season and advanced to the Sweet 16. The Retrievers open the season against the Colonials for the second year in a row after falling, 72-58, in Washington, D.C., last season. George Washington visits the RAC for the first time since 1990.

The Retrievers host three more home games in November, including 2007 Colonial Athletic Association runner-up and NCAA Tournament participant James Madison on Friday, Nov. 16, and former Northeast Conference foe Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday, Nov. 24. The Dukes, who won their first 16 CAA games last season, will make their first-ever trip to the RAC, while the Retrievers renew one of their longest rivalries with the Mountaineers.

UMBC also hosts non-conference opponents Rider (Nov. 11) and Northern Iowa (Dec. 9). The Retrievers will face the Panthers for the first time since 1986.

In the third game of the season, the Retrievers travel to 2007 WNIT participant and local rival Coppin State on Wednesday, Nov. 14. UMBC opens December with three road games at in-state opponents Loyola (Dec. 3), Navy (Dec. 5) and Towson (Dec. 19).

The Retrievers will also face George Mason (Nov. 21) and NJIT (Nov. 28) on the road in non-conference action.

UMBC concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule at the University of Maryland Terrapin Classic at the end of December. The Retrievers will play Richmond on Friday, Dec. 28 and 2006 national champion and host Maryland on Sunday, Dec. 30.

The Retrievers’ defense of the America East title begins on the road at Maine on Saturday, Jan. 5, as four of their six January games away from the RAC. UMBC returns home for two games against Stony Brook (Jan. 12) and Binghamton (Jan. 16) before three straight road games at Vermont (Jan. 20), Albany (Jan. 22) and Boston University (Jan. 30). The Retrievers host the Bearcats on Midday Madness, when UMBC will welcome hundreds of local elementary and middle school students.

Following the road trip, the Retrievers open February with two of three at home, including New Hampshire (Feb. 2) and Maine (Feb. 9), with a trip to 2007 America East runner-up Hartford sandwiched in between (Feb. 5). Three of four road games follow to end the month, but UMBC concludes the regular season with three games at home, including Senior Day against the Hawks on Sunday, March 9, when the Retrievers will bid farewell to seniors Kristin Drabyn and Morgan Hatten.

The Retrievers will play three doubleheaders with UMBC’s men’s basketball team. The George Washington men visit the RAC on Nov. 24 before the Retriever women’s game against Mount St. Mary’s. The remaining two twin bills involve conference teams, with the women hosting Stony Brook before the men take on Maine on Saturday, Jan. 12, and the women hosting the Black Bears before the men take on Binghamton on Saturday, Feb. 9, on Hall of Fame Day.

The America East schedule consists of 16 conference games per team with each squad playing the entire league twice in a home-and-home format. The final standings at the end of the regular season determine seeding for the nine-team conference tournament, which will be held at Hartford’s Chase Arena March 13-16, with the winner receiving the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

UMBC earned that automatic bid last season after becoming the first-ever America East team to defeat the top three seeds en route to the conference championship. The Retrievers took down No. 2 Stony Brook in the quarterfinals, No. 3 Vermont in the semifinals and top-seeded and two-time defending league champion Hartford in the title game to advanced to their first-ever NCAA Tournament.