Cowgirls Basketball Releases 2011-12 Schedule; Hosting LSU at Home

It was a huge year for the McNeese Cowgirls last season winning the Southland Conference Championship and making an appearance in their first ever NCAA Tournament.

Well their schedule is out for this season and one of the games already making headlines is on December 16th when the Cowgirls will host the LSU Tigers Womens team here in Lake Charles.

Head Basketball Coach Brooks Donald Williams announce the full schedule yesterday.

The defending Southland Conference Champion McNeese women's basketball team has released its 2011-2012 schedule here Wednesday as announce by head coach Brooks Donald Williams. Following a historical season, including its first trip to the NCAA tournament in school history, the Cowgirls have improved their strength of schedule for the upcoming season.

The schedule looks to be the toughest in school history as seven games will pit the Cowgirls against opponents who advanced to the postseason last year, including three NCAA tournament teams, as well as the defending national champions. Two conference foes, Lamar and Central Arkansas, were invited to postseason tournaments.

The Cowgirls will open up the season on the road in the Preseason WNIT at UCLA on Nov. 11. Included in the Preseason WNIT field are three Top 10 teams from last season (UCLA, Baylor and Notre Dame) and six others who advanced to the 2011 postseason (UCLA, Tennessee Tech, UAB, Drexel, Manhattan and Hartford).

Following the Preseason WNIT, the Cowgirls will face in-state rivals, UL-Lafayette (Nov. 21), UL-Monroe (Nov. 30) Southern-New Orleans (Dec. 3) and Centenary (Dec. 19). During the Thanksgiving break, McNeese will head to Houston for the University of Houston Invitational. The Cowgirls will go head to head with Texas Pan-Am (Nov. 25) and the University of Houston (Nov. 26) during round robin play.

After a road game at Texas Southern (Dec. 14), McNeese will then host SEC foe LSU (Dec. 16) in a much, anticipated intrastate match-up that hasn't occurred since 2006 and not in Lake Charles in over two decades (1992).

The last two games of 2011 will surely test the Cowgirls as they head east to Texas to face two of the best teams in the nation. Just before Christmas, McNeese will travel to Waco to face the Baylor Lady Bears (Dec. 21) who were an Elite Eight team a year ago and will begin the season ranked #1 by many publications.

Source: McNeesesports.com

The Cowgirls take on LSU at home and the #1 team in the country in Baylor plus all the conference foes, WOW!!!  This will be a challenging but yet exciting upcoming season Cowgirls fans.  You better get your tickets early!!