Wheeling, W. Va. – With the 2024-2025 season just under a week away, fall camps are beginning to wrap up on campus. With the new year comes a new opportunity, and the Wheeling Women's Basketball team looks to take advantage of that opportunity. On Friday, the team took the first step towards that new season, with the release of their 2024-2025 schedule, including a slate of 12 home games throughout the year.
The 2023-2024 season saw another step forward for the Cardinals under Head Coach Anna Kowalska, with the team finishing 18-11 overall and 12-8 in Mountain East Conference (MEC) Play. The team would get out to a historic start to the year, winning their first eight games of the season, including a 4-0 start in conference play. Their first loss of the season would come against the University of Charleston, that ended their first half of the season. They would continue their success into the second half of the conference schedule, going 5-1 over the first six conference games, and we're battling for the top spot in the conference. However, they would end up finishing as the #5 seed in the MEC Tournament, and ultimately bowed out in the Quarterfinal round as a 62-60 loss to Charleston would end their season.
The 2024-2025 season will once again begin with the Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference (PSAC)/MEC Crossover, hosted this year by Edinboro University. The Cardinals will face the host Fighting Scots and CAL-U, before hitting the road for two more road games against Pitt Johnstown and Thomas More. They will head to the Alma Grace McDonough Center for their home opener on Saturday, November 23rd, when they host Salem University at 2 PM. They will play their MEC opener the following Wednesday when they hit the road to face Point Park before ending the month with a non-conference game against Ursuline on November 30th. Wheeling will have two more home games to round out the first half, with West Virginia Wesleyan coming in on December 7th and West Virginia State following on December 11th.
Wheeling will be on the road three times in December, rounding out the first half with a road non-conference game against Ohio Dominican on December 21st. After taking two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's, the second half will once again start on the road, as the Cardinals head to Fairmont State on January 8th. After having just four home games throughout November and December, the tides turn in January with four home games during the month. They host Frostburg State (Jan. 11th) and Glenville State (Jan 15th) in back-to-back games to start the month and West Liberty (Jan. 25th) and Charleston (Jan. 29th) to end the month. Road games against Concord and Salem add to the month before the team heads into the stretch run for the 2025 MEC Tournament.
Like January, the Cardinals will also have four home games heading into the final month of the season. February starts with road games against West Virginia State and West Virginia Wesleyan. Then, the Cardinals will play three of their next four games at home, taking on Davis & Elkins and Fairmont State before ending the stretch with a home game against Concord. After heading to Glenville State on February 22nd, the Cardinals will come home on the 26th to celebrate Senior Day as the team welcomes Point Park on February 26th. The season will wrap up in March with the final edition of "The Battle for Wheeling" when the Cardinals head up the hill to face West Liberty on March 1st.
The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team kicks off the 2024-2025 season on Friday, November 8th, when they take on Edinboro.
