SHERBROOKE, Que. - The Bishop's Gaiters women's basketball team gets their 2016-17 season underway this weekend, as they travel to Fredericton, N.B. for the annual Helen Campbell Tournament. This weekend will be the first of three preseason road trips for the Gaiters, as they prepare for the RSEQ regular season.
The Gaiters will play three games, taking on the host UNB Varsity Reds on Friday night at 5 p.m. (all times Eastern), the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday at 1 p.m. and the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Sunday at 9 a.m.
Craig Norman, who enters his first full season as head coach, after taking over on an interim basis last Christmas, will be looking to improve on the 3-20 record the Gaiters posted last year.
Norman's squad boasts eight returning players, including the last two Bishop's female athletes of the year:
Ashley Milhomme (Repentigny, Que.) and
Edith Noblecilla (Guayaquil, Ecuador). Milhomme led the Gaiters in scoring, with 10.8 points per game last year, while Noblecilla had 9.3 points per game in an injury-shortened campaign.
Milhomme and
Charlene Pettigrew (Montreal, Que.) were named to the 2016 RSEQ All-Rookie Team.
Friday's opponent, UNB, finished 18-13 overall (12-8 AUS) last season, and hosted the 2016 CIS Women's Final 8, where they finished tied for seventh. The Gaiters have not played UNB since 2012, when the Varsity Reds took a 66-61 decision at the Don Grant Invitational in Moncton, N.B.
The Dalhousie Tigers, the Gaiters' Saturday foe, was 10-21 last year (6-14 CIS), and were knocked out in the AUS quarterfinals. The Gaiters and Tigers have not met since 2007, when Dalhousie picked up a 65-45 win at a tournament in Toronto.
The Gaiters wrap up the tournament on Sunday morning with a rare matchup against the Lakehead Thunderwolves of the OUA, who went 13-16 (7-12 OUA) last season. The Gaiters and T-Wolves will be meeting for the first time this century, as the last matchup was a 1999 contest in Sudbury that the Gaiters won 86-55.
All three games are scheduled to be webcast on
www.austv.ca.
The Gaiters' only home non-conference game is on Nov. 6, when they host the Carleton Ravens.
