May 12, 2006

The BIG EAST Conference has announced the home and away league schedule of opponents for the 2006-07 women's basketball season and Marquette will be hosting two former national champions at the Al McGuire Center in the upcoming season.

Connecticut and Notre Dame, which have captured five of the last seven national championships, will travel to Milwaukee to face the Golden Eagles in conference play. Last season - MU's first in BIG EAST play - the Golden Eagles traveled to both schools.

For the second consecutive year, the format for league play will be a 16-game schedule - with seven "home-only" opponents, seven "away-only" opponents, and one opponent both home and away. Each member will have a total of eight home and eight away games.

In addition to the Huskies and Fighting Irish, Marquette will host the following schools, as part of its home-only slate: Louisville; USF; Syracuse; Villanova; and West Virginia.

The Golden Eagles will face these seven schools on the road: Cincinnati; DePaul; Georgetown; Pittsburgh; Providence; Rutgers; and Seton Hall. St. John's Marquette, for the second straight season, will face each other on both of their respective home courts.

MU is coming off a successful campaign in 2005-06, in which the squad tied a school-record for most wins in a single-season (22), en route to advancing to the championship game of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. Head Coach Terri Mitchell's squad returns two all-BIG EAST selections in forward Christina Quaye (Second Team all-conference) and guard Krystal Ellis (All-Rookie team).

Last season, 11 BIG EAST teams made postseason appearances. Seven teams were among the field of 64 for the NCAA Championship, while four BIG EAST teams - including the Golden Eagles - took part in the WNIT.