Aug. 5, 2010

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State women's basketball head coach Raegan Pebley announced the 2010-11 schedule Thursday with the regular season beginning against Dixie State on Nov. 12. For the second-straight season, Utah State will play 16 regular-season home games, including an exhibition game against the University of Mary on Nov. 5. This matches last year for the most home games that the Aggies have ever played.

Complete 2010-11 Schedule in PDF Format

The Aggies will play eight teams that reached either the NCAA Tournament or the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) in 2009-10, including four teams from the Western Athletic Conference. Both Fresno State and WAC Tournament Champion Louisiana Tech reached the NCAA Tournament, while Nevada and New Mexico State advanced to the WNIT. In-state rivals BYU and Utah both reached the WNIT along with fellow Mountain West Conference rival Wyoming. South Dakota State rounds out the trio of teams that advanced to the "big dance" last season.

"Our team will be immensely challenged with our non-conference portion of our schedule. We are playing three upper-level Mountain West Conference teams in BYU, Utah and Wyoming as well as Big Sky powerhouse Montana. South Dakota State's recent success in their conference as well as the NCAA Tournament will also be one of the marquee games on this schedule," Pebley said.

Unlike last season when USU hosted four in-state foes, the Aggies will take to the road to face four of the five Division I teams in the state of Utah. The only team that USU will host is Southern Utah on Nov. 29. The Aggies will travel to BYU and Weber State in back-to-back games on Nov. 23 and Nov. 27, respectively. Utah State will conclude its stretch of four-straight games against Beehive State schools with the last of the quartet coming at Utah Valley on Dec. 1

"We had a great year against our in-state rivals last year going 4-1. I am sure we will have a target on our backs because of this. Additionally, the parity in Utah is growing more and more balanced each year, and we feel that we can continue to add to this. I believe with the experience and talent returning on the in-state teams, the Beehive State could see 3-4 teams in postseason play," Pebley said.

Once again, the WAC will play a double round-robin format. This season, the Aggies will play the bulk of its WAC schedule on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Aggies will open WAC play with three games at the friendly confines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, including games against Boise State (Jan. 6), WAC regular-season champion Fresno State (Jan. 8) and Nevada (Jan. 15). Following the trio of home games, Utah State will begin the road portion of the WAC schedule against WAC Tournament champs, Louisiana Tech, on Jan. 20.

"The WAC was a very competitive conference last year. As a league we were 12th in the country in RPI, and I believe the WAC will continue that climb back towards the top. In my opinion, every single team in our league is better than they were last year. No one lost too much off their roster, and everyone has great players returning to their line-up."

This season, Utah State has four doubleheaders, including one with the Aggie volleyball team and three with the USU men's basketball team.

Aggie basketball tickets will be available by contacting the USU Athletics Ticket Office at (435) 797-0305 or at 1-888-U-STATE-1 (1-888-878-2831) for more information or visit the Utah State athletics web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com.

Fans can follow USU women's basketball at http://twitter.com/UTAHSTATEofmind and Utah State athletics at http://twitter.com/USUAthletics.

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