After going 1-1 in its exhibition play, the women's basketballteam will be in Chicago this weekend to open the season in theDePaul Moran Realty Classic.
The tournament will pit Ball State against Northwestern Stateand DePaul against UW-Milwaukee on Friday night with consolationand championship games on Saturday night.
"I think it's a must-win game," junior Kate Endress said."Nobody wants to be down 0-1 from jump. We want to go out there andstart the kind of season we know we can have."
The Cardinals have never faced Northwestern State, which returnstwo starters from its 2002-03 team, which went 17-11 and finishedthird in the Southland Conference.
The first game of the season might see three freshman -- BeccaBajorek, Tina Bolte and Kelsey Corbin -- play their first game. Thefourth freshman, Teran Warner, is battling an injury and will notplay, along with sophomore Erica Cotton and senior EricaSutton.
Starters for Ball State will likely be seniors Johna Goff,Jessica Reiter and Julie Just; Endress; and sophomore RaechelleHampton.
DePaul is currently tied for 29th with New Mexico in the AP Polland would provide a very tough test for the Cardinals if theymeet.
The Cardinals could face UW-Milwaukee, whom shares a tiedall-time series at 2-2 with Ball State.
"We're a program that's trying to prove ourselves, so we alwayswant to play ranked teams, teams that are better than us to get usbetter and hopefully beat them and show the country that we aregood and we are here to play," Reiter said.
The team has continued to focus on its defense in practice thisweek, and head coach Tracy Roller is focusing on the same aspectsshe did during the exhibition games: turnovers, good defense andrebounds.
"If we play hard with intensity on defense for 35 to 40 minutes,I think we give ourselves a good chance because our offense isplaying pretty well," Roller said.
"If we play good defense and win, I think it will reallysolidify what we're trying to get accomplished here, and it willjust roll forward from there," she said.
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