Thursday, November 13, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – The 2014-15 GNAC women’s basketball season will officially start on Friday.

After a few weeks of exhibition play, all 10 schools will take the court Friday and Saturday and nine will be competing in tip-off tournaments.

Alaska Anchorage, which knocked off Division I Utah 67-61 in exhibition play last week, and Alaska are taking part in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge playing Holy Names and Chaminade this weekend.

Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene will also be taking part in a GNAC/PacWest event, hosting Hawaii Pacific and Cal Baptist in Nampa.

The Crusaders started their season off on a positive note as they came within one point last Friday against in-state and Division I rival Boise State, losing 84-83.

Seattle Pacific will be hosting the SPU Crossover Classic on Friday and Saturday, playing against Humboldt State and Fresno Pacific. Twenty-first ranked WBCA USA Today coaches poll and GNAC pre-season favorite Western Washington will also be at the classic after going 2-0 in exhibition games.

In Monmouth, the Western Oregon Wolves will also be hosting their own tournament, the WOU Doubletree Shootout. The Wolves, who may have had the hardest exhibition schedule in the GNAC playing against Division I University of Portland and No. 20 Oregon State, will play Cal State East Bay and Regis University. Saint Martin’s and pre-season all-conference player Angela Gelhar will also be competing at this event.

Simon Fraser is the only GNAC school to not be competing at a tournament on opening day. Pre-season Player of the Year Erin Chambers and the Clan will be traveling down to California this week to take the court against PacWest foes Academy of Art and Notre Dame de Namur.

Last year’s regular season champions Montana State Billings is traveling to Colorado this week to compete in the CSU Pueblo Classic. The Yellowjackets beat Carroll College and Rocky Mountain College in exhibition play last week and will take on CSU Pueblo and Western State (Colo.) in the tournament.

The non-conference portion of the season continues until Thursday, Dec. 4 when eight schools open-up conference play.