June 1, 2009
LAS VEGAS - 2009-10 Lady Rebel non-conference schedule
A home contest against national power North Carolina and the return of the Duel In The Desert tournament highlight the 2009-10 UNLV women's basketball non-conference schedule, which was released by the athletic department on Monday. The Lady Rebels will play a possible six of their 14 non-conference games against teams that played in the postseason in the 2008-09 season.
Headlining next year's slate is the Duel In The Desert, which will be a three-day, eight-team tournament and will be played in the Cox Pavilion on Dec. 19-21. The pre-Christmas event, which will have three days of four games culminating in the championship game, 3rd-place, 5th-place and 7th-place games on the final day, will have one of the nation's top fields of any regular-season tournament. Of the eight teams, five played in the NCAA Tournament last year (DePaul, Florida State, Kansas State, UT-San Antonio, Virginia Commonwealth), and a sixth played in the WNIT (Arkansas). UNLV and former Big West rival Hawaii round out the field.
The Lady Rebels also have the potential of playing up to three schools from the power leagues, as both Nebraska and perennial top-10 North Carolina both make the visit to Cox Pavilion in November, while UNLV also hosts Washington State in its Thanksgiving tournament.
"I feel this year's schedule will really help us prepare for the Mountain West Conference season, and I really like that we will get a taste of a lot of different styles in how these teams play," said head coach Kathy Olivier. "We see a wide range of styles in our conference schedule, so this will be a good mix to get us ready for that. Bringing in a team like North Carolina, anytime you play a top level team like that you make your program step up to that level. It will be a good challenge to play a very athletic team such as UNC.
"I'm also very excited about the Duel In the Desert tournament. This will be great for our community of fans to see three days of very good basketball played by teams from all over the country. It's a great field of high-level teams from some of the top basketball conferences."
UNLV will begin the season on the road on Nov. 13 at Southern Utah, before returning home to face Nebraska on Nov. 15. Another road trip, this time at Sacramento State (Nov. 19) will be followed by the home date against North Carolina, the first meeting between the schools since an 84-76 win by the fifth-ranked UNC squad on Nov. 28, 2004, also in the Cox Pavilion.
This year's Lady Rebel Round-Up, which is moving back a day for a Saturday-Sunday schedule on Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 28-29), will feature Boise State, Bradley, and Washington State. During the National Finals Rodeo, which is on campus in December, UNLV will begin its extended annual road trip, with games at San Diego (Dec. 3), at Nevada, Reno (Dec. 6), and at Fresno State (Dec. 12), which was another NCAA participant in 2008-09.
The final two non-conference games will come after the winter break, with UNLV hosting Northern Arizona on Dec. 29 before playing at Utah State on Jan. 2. The Mountain West Conference schedule will be released later this summer.
