The University of Rhode Island women’s basketball team will certainly have no shortage of exciting games during their non-league schedule.
Twin sisters in a duel, the America East champions, a former player on the opposing side, two in-state rivals visiting, one of the biggest brands in sports right now and two difficult away trips with Ivy League players – all of this awaits the Rams in the first two months of the season.
Tammi Reiss will look to bring some momentum to the Atlantic 10 schedule and reach another conference tournament title game. How the URI coach leads her team through those 13 tests will set the tone, and it starts with an opening doubleheader at the Ryan Center on Nov. 4.
The Rams women host Stonehill and the URI men face Fairfield on the first day of the season.
URI faces a slightly different personal challenge on its first road trip, as team captain Sophie Phillips battles her twin sister Lilly in a Nov. 8 meet in Albany. The Great Danes are fresh off a WNIT appearance after winning 25 games.
The Rams follow with two straight home wins against Maine and St. John’s, the America East champions and Big East opponents. URI lost road games to the Black Bears and Red Storm last season. A visit to UMass Lowell on Nov. 20 renews the connection with Denise King, the River Hawks coach who scored 1,000 points for the Rams from 2005-09.
Brown’s Nov. 23 visit is the first of two interstate rivalries in Kingston this season. The Rams host Providence on Dec. 4, part of a week that also features the men’s teams competing. URI split with the Bears and Friars in 2023-24, winning on the East Side and losing at Alumni Hall.
More: Rhode Island Basketball hosts Providence on December 7. Here is the complete non-conference schedule.
Between those two state games is a trip to the Cancun Challenge, where the Rams will face one of the most successful teams in recent seasons. URI plays Iowa on Nov. 28, and the Hawkeyes will chart a new course without supernova guard Caitlin Clark and her former coach Lisa Bluder. Two returning starters and former associate head coach Jan Jenson will lead Iowa moving forward, and the Rams will finish their stay at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya with a game against Idaho State the next day.
URI now has three Ivy League opponents with back-to-back trips to Harvard and Princeton in early December. The Rams edged the Crimson at home in a WNIT rematch and beat the Tigers for their first program win over a nationally ranked opponent. Princeton finished the season 25-5 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
URI will close out the season with a game against Saint Francis (Pa.) on Education Day on Dec. 20. The Rams will host thousands of local students coming off exam break, and they will face a rebuilding team that went 5-25 overall last season. URI will then begin its league schedule, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Rams finished 21-14 last season, losing to Richmond in the league title game. They shuffled both the roster and coaching staff in the spring and summer, bringing in transfers Harsimran Kaur (San Diego) and Cia Eklöf (Washington State). Associate head coach Megan Shoniker was hired as head coach at New Hampshire and assistant coach Takima Keane was not retained – Ali Jaques (George Washington) and Jen Fay (Quinnipiac) were selected by Reiss to fill those two vacancies, and Tyler Lowder is coming from Indiana as video coordinator.
Match times and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.
On X: @BillKoch25
November 4 – Stonehill
8 November – in Albany
10 November – in Le Moyne
November 13 – Maine
17 November – St John’s
November 20 – at UMass Lowell
November 23 – Brown
November 28 – Iowa (Cancun Challenge)
November 29 – Idaho State (Cancun Challenge)
December 4 – Providence
December 7 – at Harvard
December 11 – in Princeton
December 20 – Saint Francis (Pa.)
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