Cowgirls will be road tested
Looking to raise the profile and ranking of her basketball program, first-year McNeese women's head coach Ayla Guzzardo will hit the road for all but two of her non-conference games this season.
Guzzardo released the pre-Southland Conference portion of her schedule Thursday as the Cowgirls will open the season with the annual Kids' Game on November 3 in the Legacy Center.
'We are looking forward to our season opener, where we welcome the youth of Lake Charles to kick off our season,' said Guzzardo. 'We want to take that game and get kids interested in the Cowgirls so that they ask their parents to bring them back. It is a great way for us to interact with the community.'
McNeese will host Pensacola Christian College and several thousand students from Calcasieu Parish schools for the fourth such game. The Cowgirls' only other home game before SLC play will also be against another non-Division I school, LSU-Alexanderia, on November 22.
In the past, the McNeese women's team would play four non-Division I schools at home, a practice Guzzardo aims to eliminate in the future to improve the Cowgirl schedule and achieve better rankings.
'We will have more home games against Division I schools in the years to come,' said Guzzardo. 'We want to get our net ranking below 100 and even in the top 75.
With 22 league games scheduled for this season and finishing previous commitments, the window for such contests at home this year was limited.
'I'm trying to get a 13 or 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament if we win our league,' said Guzzardo. 'We want to stay away from that 16 and 15 spot. We want to come in and play three or four, not one or two.
Highlighting the non-conference schedule will be three games against teams that advanced to the postseason last year, including two games against teams that won NCAA Tournament games.
A road game at Alabama will provide the first actual test of the season for the Cowgirls. The Crimson Tide is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance last season, where they fell in double overtime to Maryland in the second round.
The non-conference schedule also has McNeese traveling to Tarleton State, which fell to Lindenwood in the second round of the WNIT, followed by a road game at Utah Tech. McNeese fell to Utah Tech at home last season.
McNeese will travel to Tempe, Arizona (Dec. 5-6) for a multi-team event hosted by Arizona State. The Cowgirls will take on Arizona State, another NCAA Tournament team that lost to Iowa State in the second round last season, as well as a game against Nevada.
'This is the hand we have been dealt, and we will deal with it,' said Guzzardo. 'Our goal is to get into some mid-major polls this year and to do that, we are going to have to win some of these big games.
'We know if we make the NCAA Tournament, we are going to have to play on the road in their gym, so we want to get used to those environments.'
McNeese will also host one preseason scrimmage against a Division I foe and travel for another. Those scrimmages will not be open to the public.
'We will get to challenge ourselves early in the non-conference schedule against an Alabama team that made some noise in the NCAA Tournament last year,' Guzzardo said. 'We will be road warriors with trips to Utah Tech, Arizona State, and Tarleton, which is great because it will make us ready for our rigorous conference opponents.'
2025-26 McNeese Women's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule
Nov. 3 Pensacola Christian College (Kids' Game)
Nov. 6 at Alabama
Nov. 16 at Tarleton State
Nov. 22 LSUA
Dec. 2 at Utah Tech
Dec. 5-6 at Arizona State Tournament (Arizona State, Nevada)
Home games in BOLD
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