Ashland Women To Play OSU, UConn in Exhibition Games
Prior to starting its defense of its NCAA Division II national championship, Ashland University's women's basketball team will play two road exhibition games against some of the best Division I has to offer.
The Eagles' 2017 exhibition games will be Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. at The Ohio State University and Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. at Connecticut, prior to the start of the 2017-18 season on Nov. 10-11 at the 2017 Exempt Tournament at Cedarville.
"We are really excited about our two exhibition games vs. Ohio State and UConn," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick. "The experiences and memories that both games will present will be memorable and challenging. Our program is excited for these incredible opportunities."
This will be the second consecutive season Ashland will go to the Schottenstein Center for an exhibition with the Buckeyes. On Nov. 6, 2016, the Eagles lost 88-79 in Columbus.
Ohio State was 28-7 and 15-1 in the Big Ten in 2016-17, winning a conference championship and reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The AU-UConn game originally was announced on March 30, but the time (1 p.m.) and location (Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Conn.) have recently been determined.
In 2016-17, the Huskies were 36-1 overall and 16-0 in the American Athletic Conference, winning the league regular-season and tournament titles. UConn lost in the Final Four, and has won 11 national championships, all since 1995.
Ticket information for the AU-UConn exhibition will be available at a later date.
Ashland's women completed Division II's first 37-0 women's or men's basketball season in 2016-17, scoring a D-II women's hoops-record 3,456 points in the process. It was the program's second national championship.
The Eagles will go into 2017-18 with the longest winning streak (37 games) of any basketball team, men or women, at any level of the NCAA.