DeKALB – The NIU women's basketball team announced its 2016-17 scheduled Tuesday, featuring 13 home games at the NIU Convocation Center including nine of its 18 Mid-American Conference contests. The Huskies' season will tipoff Friday, Nov. 11 when they head to Loyola on the North Side of Chicago.

"This year's schedule has a lot of familiar regional opponents and it will give us the opportunity to play a lot of teams that played in the postseason," said Head Coach Lisa Carlsen. "It will certainly be a good measuring stick for us to see where we stack up against other institutions in the region, as well as prepare us for Mid-American Conference play."

Of their 11 pre-conference matchups, six contests will be versus foes whom the Huskies went 4-2 against in head-to-head competition during the 2015-16 campaign. In addition, 13 of NIU's regular season games are against foes that participated in the postseason, including WNIT Champion South Dakota on Dec. 20 in Kansas City, Mo.

In their lone exhibition match of the season, NIU will host Division III Lakeland College on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m., before taking on the Ramblers in the regular season opener.

Playing four non-conference tilts at home, NIU will play its home opener on Nov. 16 when it hosts Milwaukee. It will also host Chicago State (Nov. 22) and Illinois State (Nov. 26) in the month of November and round out its home non-conference season against SIUE on Friday, Dec. 16.

The Huskies will play two games in Iowa this season, taking on Drake in a rematch from last year's 89-73 victory at the NIU Convocation Center, on Nov. 30. Northern Illinois will return to the state on Dec. 11 when it takes on Iowa State in Ames. 

In their lone tournament of the season, the Huskies will head to Kansas City, taking on South Dakota Dec. 19 and host UMKC on Dec. 20 in the second game.

For the first time since the 1998-99 season, Northern Illinois University will begin MAC play before the new year, hosting Eastern Michigan on New Year's Eve. During crossover play with the MAC's East division, NIU will meet Miami (Ohio) and Kent State twice during the season.

The schedule also features a trip to MAC Tournament Champions Buffalo on Saturday, Feb. 11. NIU defeated the Bulls on Jan. 29 on a buzzer-beating three point shot from Cassidy Glenn last season.

NIU women's basketball season tickets are on sale, starting at $35 for general admission seats. Fans can purchase reserved seats for $50 and can purchase combination packages, including volleyball/women's basketball combo ticket, starting at $35.

Northern Illinois University Athletics is introducing a new NIU All-Sports Pass exclusively for all current faculty and staff of NIU which will provide free admission to all regular season home Huskie volleyball and men's and women's basketball games in 2016-17.

This Faculty & Staff All-Sports Pass is available to current NIU faculty and staff who buy football season tickets with one pass provided for each season ticket purchased. NIU faculty and staff also receive a discount on full football season tickets at a price of just $115 for all six NIU football home games, which includes the Huskie Chi-Town Showdown at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago on November 9 versus Toledo.

To order tickets, call the NIU Ticket Office at (815) 753-PACK (7225) or purchase at the door.

The Huskies finished 11-19 last season with a 4-14 clip in Mid-American Conference play. NIU returns nine letter winners and four starters from the 2015-16 team, including Third Team All-MAC selection Ally Lehman, who averaged 13.5 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. Lehman's 11.0 rebounds per game are the most returning by a guard this season.

Four of the nine NIU players returning scored 10-or-more points per game last season, marking the first time since 1989-90 that the Huskies will return that kind of offensive firepower heading into the year.

Follow the NIU women's basketball program on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat @GoHuskiesWBB. Fans can also follow the team on Facebook by searching and liking NIU Women's Basketball.
 

Akron (WNIT)	Eastern Michigan (WNIT)
Ball State (WNIT)	Milwaukee (WNIT)
Buffalo (NCAA)	Ohio (WNIT)
Central Michigan (WNIT)	South Dakota (WNIT)
Drake (WNIT)	Western Illinois (WBI)