TU Women's Hoops Announces C-USA Schedule

Golden Hurricane coach Matilda Mossman announced Tulsa's 16-game Conference USA schedule, which features eight home contests at the Donald W. Reynolds Center and seven games against teams that played in the postseason last year.

Tulsa's non-league schedule was announced earlier this summer and includes home games against Abilene Christian, Arkansas-Little Rock, Oral Roberts, Texas Southern, Valparaiso and Western Michigan; road contests with Arkansas, Kansas, Lamar and Saint Louis; and a tournament featuring Fordham, Harvard and UNC-Greensboro in New York City.

"This will be a challenging final year in C-USA, playing eight schools that we have not faced previously," Mossman said. "Middle Tennessee, who was an NCAA tournament team last year, and Charlotte, who was within a heartbeat of getting into the NCAA tournament, provide us with good solid competition, and perennial programs such as Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion help put us in the national spotlight."

"Hopefully, the addition of all of our new members will help our conference RPI and enable the league to get more than one team into the NCAA Tournament. We are excited about the upcoming season, our slate of opponents and the opportunity to compete for a conference championship."

Eight teams in Conference USA advanced to postseason play last year, including NCAA Tournament teams Middle Tennessee and Tulsa, and WNIT teams Charlotte, East Carolina, FIU, Old Dominion, Tulane and UAB.

The Golden Hurricane will begin the conference slate against new league member UTSA in San Antonio, Texas on Jan. 8, and continue the road swing to UTEP on Jan. 11. The Roadrunners posted 16 wins, including 10 victories in the Western Athletic Conference, last year, while the Miners netted 22 wins and finished fifth in C-USA.

TU returns home to host UAB on Jan. 15 and FIU on Jan. 18. The Blazers recorded 18 wins, while the Panthers posted 19 victories, and both teams advanced to the WNIT first round a year ago.

A pair of road games against Marshall (Jan. 25) and North Texas (Jan. 29) is up next on the schedule. The Thundering Herd finished with nine wins, while the Mean Green earned 11 victories, including 10 wins in the Sun Belt.

The Hurricane will play host to new league member Middle Tennessee (Feb. 1) and then travel to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion (Feb. 5). The Blue Raiders posted 25 wins, won the Sun Belt Championship and played in the first round of the NCAA tournament, while the Lady Monarchs netted 19 wins and played in the first round of the WNIT a year ago. This will be the first meeting for Tulsa with both teams.

Tulsa will host four of the next five games, including FAU (Feb. 8), Rice (Feb. 12), LA Tech (Feb. 19) and North Texas (Feb. 22), while traveling to Southern Miss on Feb. 15. The FAU Owls netted 12 wins, the Rice Owls and Techsters both had 14 victories, and the Golden Eagles posted 15 wins.

TU will close out the regular season against three WNIT teams from last season, including two WNIT Sweet 16 teams in Tulane and Charlotte, while East Carolina played in the first round. The Golden Hurricane will make the trip to New Orleans (Feb. 26) to face the Green Wave, which recorded 24 wins last season, before trekking north to face ECU (March 1), which registered 22 victories. Tulsa will then conclude the year at home against the 49ers (March 5), a team that earned 26 wins, including 13 victories in the Atlantic 10.

Click here for a look at TU's complete schedule.