HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's basketball team has announced its 2019-20 schedule. The defending Centennial Conference champions are set for 25 total contests, including 11 home games inside the friendly confines of Gooding '84 Arena, where the team has become a dominant force, posting a 29-7 record over the last three seasons.
The slate begins with the team making a quick trip to Immaculata on November 12 for the season opener. The Fords have seen a run of recent success against the Mighty Macs, winning the last seven meetings, including a 58-36 triumph a season ago at Haverford.
The Fords then continue the road swing with a trip to the 2019 Pablo Coto Tip-Off on the Arlington, Va. campus of Marymount (Va.). The squad faces off with the host Saints on November 15, before a November 16 contest against either Sage or Ferrum. The contest with Marymount will be just the second between the two squads, as Haverford took down the then-No. 21 Saints in Arlington on November 15, 2013, cruising by a final score of 70-56. Haverford then bested Sage in the 2017 Gwynedd Mercy Tip Off Tournament, the only meeting between the two teams. Haverford has never faced Ferrum.
The four-game road swing to open the season finishes with another quick trip to Eastern (Nov. 21), before the Centennial Conference opener at home against Ursinus. A non-conference home date against Catholic (Nov. 26) wraps up November. Haverford has not faced the Cardinals since the 2005-06 campaign.
Conference play begins in earnest with three road games in December, as Haverford travels to Franklin & Marshall (Dec. 4), Dickinson (Dec. 7), and Muhlenberg (Dec. 14) before the break for the winter holidays. Another road contest begins 2020 as Haverford takes to Westminster, Md. for a matchup against an always spirited McDaniel team (Jan. 4).
A three-game homestand begins against a fellow Centennial Conference tournament team in Johns Hopkins (Jan. 7), before Washington College (Jan. 9) visits Gooding Arena. A rematch of the Centennial Conference Championship is set for January 11, as Gettysburg makes the trip to Haverford for a highly anticipated contest between two of the conference's best.
A Hood Trophy showdown at Swarthmore (Jan. 15) serves as a one-game road excursion before the Fords return home for home games against Franklin & Marshall (Jan. 22) and Bryn Mawr (Jan. 25). A trip to Ursinus (Jan. 29) then wraps up the first month of action in 2020.
The Fords host Dickinson to begin Feburary (Feb. 1), before three consecutive road contests at Bryn Mawr (Feb. 4), Washington College (Feb. 6), and Gettysburg (Feb. 8). A battle-tested Muhlenberg squad comes into Gooding Arena on Feburary 12 for a midweek showdown, before the Fords host Senior Day against McDaniel (Feb. 15).
The Hood Trophy rivalry series with Swarthmore concludes with a home contest on February 19, and the Fords then wrap up the regular season with a trip to Baltimore's Goldfarb Gym to face off with Johns Hopkins (Feb. 22).
The first round of the Centennial Conference tournament is slated for Tuesday, February 25, before the semifinals and finals at the site of the conference's top regular season team. The Centennial Conference Semifinals are set for Feburary 28, while the championship is slated for Saturday, February 29.
Haverford reached the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive season in 2018-19, the first time in program history the squad has advanced to the tournament in back-to-back years.
The Fords finished its season with a 22-7 overall record, the second-most wins in program history. The team embarked on a spirited run through the Centennial Conference Championships, dispatching Johns Hopkins and Gettysburg on consecutive days to hoist the conference's trophy and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Fords were later receiving votes in both national polls heading into the national tournament, and gave voters a reason to believe with a resounding 43-point victory over Main Line neighbor Rosemont, jetting into a second round matchup with then-No. 4 Tufts. The Fords gave the egional host Jumbos all they could handle in a 52-46 defeat.