STANFORD, Calif. – Six home games, including a December 16 meeting with Tennessee, at least five contests against NCAA Tournament opponents from last season and the Cardinal’s first trip to the state of Florida since the 2008 Final Four highlight the 2015-16 Stanford women’s basketball nonconference schedule, which was announced on Thursday.
Tip times and broadcast information along with Stanford’s Pac-12 schedule will be announced in September once television arrangements have been finalized. Season tickets for the 2015-16 campaign are on sale now by visiting gostanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
Highlighting Stanford’s challenging nonconference slate is the continuation of its storied rivalry with Tennessee (30-6, 15-1 SEC), which is scheduled to visit Maples Pavilion on Wednesday, December 16. The Cardinal, which has won four of the last six meetings between the two schools, has also taken four straight in Maples Pavilion. Stanford and the Lady Vols have played 32 total games and at least once in each of the past 27 seasons.
Tennessee’s visit to The Farm kicks off Stanford’s second stretch of nonconference home games. The Cardinal hosts George Washington (November 21) and Santa Clara (November 23) before heading to the previously announced Gulf Coast Showcase where it will begin with Missouri State on Friday, November 27. A matchup with either Dayton (28-7, 14-2 Atlantic 10) or Maine (23-9, 14-2 America East) awaits on Saturday, November 28 and potential day three opponents include Louisville (27-7, 12-4 ACC), Marist (21-12, 15-5 MAAC), LSU (17-14, 10-6 SEC) or Purdue (11-20, 3-15 Big Ten).
George Washington (29-4, 15-1 Atlantic 10) earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and finished 25th in the USA Today Coaches Poll at the conclusion of last season. GW set a program record for wins and claimed both the Atlantic 10 regular-season and tournament championships. Stanford is 2-0 all-time against the Colonials, earning neutral-site victories at the UNLV Desert Classic in 1991 (74-71) and in the NCAA Tournament in 2001 (76-51).
The Cardinal, which claimed an 82-43 home win over the Broncos last December, is 29-4 against Santa Clara (10-18, 5-13 WCC) and has won seven straight in the series.
Stanford’s season begins on the road in mid-November with dates at UC Davis (November 13) and Gonzaga (November 15). The Aggies (15-16, 8-8 Big West) came to Maples late last December and left with a 71-59 loss thanks in large part to Bonnie Samuelson’s 30-point outburst.
The game with the Bulldogs resumes a series that took a one-year hiatus after featuring matchups each November or December from 2009 to 2013. Stanford is 6-0 against Gonzaga (26-8, 16-2 WCC) and won 69-41 in its last trip to face the Zags in Spokane on December 2, 2012. The Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet 16 as an 11-seed in the NCAA Tournament a year ago and won 25 games for the seventh straight season.
Sandwiched between the Gulf Coast Showcase and the showdown with Tennessee, Stanford travels to Austin for a game at Texas (24-11, 9-9 Big 12) on Sunday, December 13. Texas ended the 2014-15 season ranked 22nd in the nation after a run to the Sweet 16.
The Longhorns’ 87-81 win in overtime in Maples last November snapped the Cardinal’s 28-game home winning streak. Stanford held the Longhorns to just 17 second-half points in a come-from-behind win in its last visit to Austin, 63-54, on November 23, 2013.
Following the Tennessee game, Stanford hosts Cornell (December 19), CSU Bakersfield (December 22) and Chattanooga (December 28) to close out the nonconference portion of its schedule.
It will be the Cardinal’s first meeting with Cornell (15-13, 6-8 Ivy League) and second with Bakersfield (23-9, 11-3 WAC), which is coached by the father of Stanford forward Erica McCall. Chattanooga (29-4, 14-0 SoCon) will provide a fitting end to a tough pre-conference slate. The Lady Mocs, which earned an NCAA Tournament berth in 2014-15, held Stanford to just 27.7 percent shooting to beat the Cardinal in Chattanooga, 54-46, last December 17.
The final Pac-12 schedule will be announced next month. In this year’s rotation, UCLA and USC do not visit Maples Pavilion while Stanford misses its regular-season trip to Washington and Washington State.
The Cardinal kicks things off with a home exhibition on Saturday, November 7 against Academy of Art University.
