Senior Jessica Bobbitt will look to lead the Bruins back to the NCAA Tournament.

Aug. 20, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – One season after playing the toughest regular season schedule under Head Coach Tony Cross, the Belmont women’s basketball team is poised to rebuild on its legacy of excellence and vie for a return to the NCAA Tournament. This year, the Bruins’ slate features match-ups with several intrastate rivals and appearances in two tournaments that should give the team confidence heading into the always competitive Atlantic Sun.

“We open the season at home with Memphis,” said Head Coach Tony Cross.  “They are a very well known team and play in the competitive Conference USA.  Then we take on Tennessee Tech the next weekend.  TTU has been a long time rival with Belmont, from the early days of the program.  Tennessee Tech and Belmont were among the first schools to offer women’s basketball as a varsity sport (in the state of Tennessee).”

BU officially opens the 2008-09 schedule with its first three games of the season against teams from around the state of Tennessee.  The Bruins officially open the season hosting Memphis at the Curb Event Center on November 16.  The Lady Tigers finished last year tied for sixth in Conference USA and will enter this season with a new head coach.  The following weekend, Belmont hosts Tennessee Tech.  In the Tony Cross era, the teams have only faced twice with each claiming a victory, however the contest will be the 35^th meeting between the programs since the 1969-70 season.  BU’s first road game of the year will not be very far from home as the team travels to Clarksville to take on Austin Peay.  The teams haven’t met since the 2005-06 campaign but the Bruins hold a commanding 15-4 advantage.

“I think it’s great that we continue to play schools like Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State, Tennessee-Martin and Austin Peay.  These are good games for local interest and we should have a lot of fans be able to come to those games,” Cross said.

Belmont closes out the month of November with a stop at Southern Mississippi for a tournament.  Also invited to participate are Alcorn State, Michigan and host-Southern Miss.  The Bruins have never faced off against ASU, who went 12-18 in regular season action, and have only taken on the host Golden Eagles once, back in 1973.  SMU went 21-14 during the regular season and advanced to the semifinals of the Conference USA Championship.  The Wolverines and Bruins met for the first time last year at the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Tournament.  Michigan advanced to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Championship with a 19-14 overall record at the end of the 2007-08 campaign.

“We will play Michigan first at the Southern Mississippi tournament and we are looking forward to another challenging match-up with them.”

December marks the beginning of Atlantic Sun play with the Bruins taking a brief break away from local action to travel to Florida for games at Jacksonville and North Florida the weekend of December 4.  BU then returns to the confines of the CEC when it hosts Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin on December 9 and December 17, respectively.  The team closes out the first half of its schedule with an appearance at a tournament hosted by Alabama.  Ball State and Richmond, both potential first time opponents, have also been invited to participate. BSU finished second in MAC’s West Division with an 11-5 league record and a 15-15 overall mark while Richmond was tied for sixth in the Atlantic 10 after going 6-8 in the league and 14-17 overall.

“This year, we have a 20 game schedule in the A-Sun with the return of round-robin play,” said Cross.  “A lot could happen over 20 games so we will just have to keep playing to see how things will shake out.”

The Bruins open the 2009 portion of their schedule with a four-game Atlantic Sun homestand, hosting Stetson (Jan. 3), Florida Gulf Coast (Jan. 5), Campbell (Jan. 10) and close with part one of the Battle of the Boulevard against Lipscomb on January 12.  The remainder of January finds Belmont on the road for contests at 2008 A-Sun Champion East Tennessee State (Jan. 15), USC Upstate (Jan. 17), Stetson (Jan. 29) and FGCU (Jan. 31).  Part two of the Battle of the Boulevard will be at Lipscomb on January 26.  Highlights from the month of February include hosting ETSU on February 15 and closing out the regular season with North Florida on February 26 and Jacksonville two days later.