HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College women's basketball team released its 2013-14 schedule Wednesday afternoon.
The opening game of the season will see the Fords take on Marymount University as part of Marymount's Tip-Off Classic on November 15. The host Saints captured their 12th Capital Athletic Conference title last season and participated in the NCAA tournament for the 17th time in program history. Haverford's opponent the following day will be either The College of New Jersey from the New Jersey Athletic Conference or Lynchburg College of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. TCNJ and Lynchburg each won 18 games in 2012-13 and qualified for the playoffs in their respective leagues.
Looking for their third straight Centennial Conference playoff berth, the Fords will jump into conference action on Nov. 20 when rival Bryn Mawr College comes to Gooding Arena.
Haverford faces a tough stretch at the end of November as it travels to two of the toughest places to play in the Centennial in a span of a few days beginning with a game at Dickinson College on Nov. 23. The Fords will then battle Muhlenberg College, a Centennial semifinalist last season, in Allentown, Pa., just three days later.
The first semester comes to a close with three of the final four contests at Gooding Arena -- a place where Haverford went 9-2 in 2012-13. Washington College will visit for a conference game on Dec. 3 before a Dec. 5 date with Franklin & Marshall caps the first-semester conference slate.
Non-conference games against Penn State Hazleton (Dec. 9) and Immaculata University (Dec. 14) finish off 2013.
The new calendar year brings more challenges as the Fords play their final non-conference contest against visiting Delaware Valley College on Jan. 6 before turning their attention to Centennial foes the rest of the way.
A trip to Johns Hopkins University on Jan. 8, in a rematch of last year's opening round playoff game, will kick off a period of three of the next four on the road. The lone home contest in that span is a big one as defending champion Gettysburg College comes to Haverford on Jan. 14.
The opening days of February provide the luxury of three straight home conference games. The Fords will once again look to take advantage of the comfortable confines of Gooding Arena against Johns Hopkins (Feb. 1), Muhlenberg (Feb. 5) and McDaniel College (Feb. 8).
A final push for one of the highly-coveted spots in the conference tournament will entail surviving a treacherous stretch to close out the regular season. Three of the final four contests will be on road beginning with a trip to Washington College on Feb. 12. After another matchup with Gettysburg (Feb. 15), Haverford will host Ursinus College (Feb. 19) before ending the season at rival Swarthmore College (Feb. 22).