ATLANTA – Twelve games against seven teams that made an appearance in the 2000 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, and five games slated to be televised highlight the Georgia Tech women’s basketball schedule, announced Wednesday.
Among the NCAA Tournament teams that the Yellow Jackets will face this season are Dartmouth at home (Dec. 17), Georgia (Dec. 8) in the pre-conference schedule, along with ACC foes NC State, Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. The Blue Devils are the defending ACC Champions.
Along with the competitive conference schedule, the Yellow Jackets will face in-state rival Georgia for the third straight year at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta, Ga.
Tech will host a pair of regular-season holiday tournaments in 2000-01. The first tourney will be played during the weekend following Thanksgiving, and will feature Cornell, Mount St. Mary’s and Winthrop. The Jackets will face Cornell in the first round on November 24, with the consolation and championship games to be played on November 25. The second tournament will include Tech facing St. Francis (Pa.) in the opening round on December 29, and Fresno State and South Alabama meeting in the other semifinal. The finals of the Georgia Tech/Atlanta Marriott NW Holiday Invitational will take place on December 30.
“I think our schedule is an awesome one,” said Georgia Tech head coach Agnus Berenato. “As far as difficulty in scheduling, we play a forever challenging ACC schedule and we have Georgia who is going to be among the top teams in the nation and Mississippi State who probably will be in the top 10 in the preseason.”
The Jackets will make their first television appearance of the year on January 7, when the Virginia Cavaliers pay a visit to the Thrillerdome. The game will be shown on the ACC’s regional network of Fox Sports South, HTS and the Sunshine Network. Another regional television appearance for Tech will be on January 21, as Maryland travels to the Flats for an ACC matchup. The final regionally televised regular-season game for the Jackets will be on February 12, when defending ACC champ Duke invades Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The Yellow Jackets’ remaining two televised games will be Jan. 5 against Florida State and Feb. 15 against NC State. Both contests will take place at Alexander Memorial Coliseum and will be televised on Fox Sports South.
Tech returns 10 letterwinners from a year ago, including four starters in senior Jaime Kruppa (Lithonia, Ga.), sophomore Nina Barlin (Katrineholm, Sweden), senior Regina Tate (Columbus, Ga.) and sophomore Amy Lingenfelder (Fairfax, Va.). Niesha Butler (New York, N.Y.), the 1999 ACC Rookie of the Year, also returns after a torn ACL sidelined her for most of last season. The Jackets welcome a pair of freshmen to the lineup this season: Jasmina Pacariz (Stockholm, Sweden) and Fallon Stokes (Atlanta, Ga.).
The team will face its first outside competition with a pair of exhibition games November 3 against the Basketball Travelers and on November 9 versus Athletes in Action, both at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
