Wheeling, W. Va. – The 2024-2025 season begins in less than a week and fall camps on campus are slowly winding down. With the new year comes new opportunities and the Wheeling women’s basketball team is looking to capitalize on that opportunity. On Friday, the team took the first step toward that new season, releasing its 2024-2025 schedule, which includes 12 home games throughout the year.

The 2023-2024 season was another step forward for the Cardinals under head coach Anna Kowalska. The team finished the season 18-11 overall and 12-8 in the Mountain East Conference (MEC). The team had a historic start to the year, winning their first eight games of the season, including a 4-0 start in the conference. They suffered their first loss of the season against the University of Charleston, ending their first half of the season. They continued their success in the second half of the conference schedule, going 5-1 in their first six conference games and challenging for the top spot in the conference. However, they finished the MEC Tournament as the #5 seed and were ultimately eliminated in the quarterfinals when a 62-60 loss to Charleston ended their season.

The 2024-2025 season will once again begin with the Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference (PSAC)/MEC crossover, hosted this year by Edinboro University. The Cardinals will face hosts Fighting Scots and CAL-U before hitting the road for two more road games against Pitt Johnstown and Thomas More. They will play their first home game on Saturday, November 23rd at the Alma Grace McDonough Center, where they will host Salem University at 2 p.m. They will play their first MEC game the following Wednesday when they face Point Park on the road before ending the month with a nonconference game against Ursuline on November 30th. Wheeling has two more home games to close out the first half, hosting West Virginia Wesleyan on December 7th and West Virginia State on December 11th.

Wheeling will travel three times in December, closing the first half with a non-conference road game against Ohio Dominican on Dec. 21. After a two-week break over Christmas and New Years, the second half begins on the road again when the Cardinals travel to Fairmont State on Jan. 8. After just four home games in November and December, the tide turns in January with four home games in the month, hosting Frostburg State (Jan. 11) and Glenville State (Jan. 15) in back-to-back games to start the month and West Liberty (Jan. 25) and Charleston (Jan. 29) to close out the month. Road games against Concord and Salem extend the month before the team heads into the final stages of the 2025 MEC Tournament.

Like January, the Cardinals have four home games in the final month of the season. February begins with away games against West Virginia State and West Virginia Wesleyan. Then the Cardinals will play three of their next four games at home, against Davis & Elkins and Fairmont State, before closing the season with a home game against Concord. After heading to Glenville State on February 22, the Cardinals will come home on the 26th to celebrate Senior Day when the team welcomes Point Park on February 26. The season ends in March with the final edition of “The Battle for Wheeling” when the Cardinals head up the hill to face West Liberty on March 1.

The Wheeling University women’s basketball team will begin the 2024-2025 season on Friday, November 8th with a game against Edinboro.