Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University women's basketball program, under the direction of fifth-year head coach
Charlie Buscaglia, has announced a 20-game Horizon League conference schedule that features 10 home contests at the UPMC Events Center.
The Horizon League schedule will be played in a format that sees members play one conference opponent twice a week, with each games taking place on consecutive days at the same location. RMU's conference debut begins on the weekend of Dec. 12-13 when it travels to Cleveland State, followed by its final games of the calendar year at Milwaukee on Dec. 19-20.
2021 features home series against IUPUI (Jan. 1-2), UIC (Jan. 8-9), Wright State (Jan. 22-23), Youngstown State (Jan. 29-30), and Detroit Mercy (Feb. 12-13), and road series at Northern Kentucky (Jan. 15-16), Oakland (Feb. 5-6), and Purdue Fort Wayne (Feb. 19-20). The Colonials' non-conference schedule will be released at a later date.
"We appreciate all the tireless efforts from our administration and the Horizon League office to get the schedule completed," said Buscaglia. "We are excited to get started."
Guided by the principle of safety, the Horizon League scheduling model was developed in consultation with the league's Return To Safe Play work group, athletic directors, senior woman administrators (SWA) and faculty athletic representatives, with additional feedback provided by the Horizon League men's and women's basketball coaches and student-athlete captain's council.
In addition, the Horizon League Board of Directors is overseeing league-wide safety protocols focused on consistency and clarity for all league competition. As part of these protocols, the Board of Directors determined that due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, all Horizon League games in the month of December will be played without fans. Team pass lists and complimentary tickets will also be prohibited in December. The Board of Directors will re-evaluate changes at a later date.
Stay connected and #RMUnite with RMU basketball via the RMU Gameday App, which features live audio of all of the 2020-21 games in addition to all things RMU Athletics, as well as through video streaming through ESPN+.
Buscaglia leads a RMU team that returns four players that started 15 or more games last season and 10 letterwinners overall. Junior guard
Isabella Posset, a two-time All-Northeast Conference (NEC) selection, and senior forward
Holly Forbes both started all 30 games in 2018-19, while sophomore guard Dahomée Forgues (22 starts), junior guard
Esther Castedo (15 starts), and senior guard
Nina Augustin (15 starts) all appeared in the starting lineup in at least half of RMU's contests last season.
Since 2013-14 among mid-major programs, RMU ranks second in conference tournament titles (4), third in NCAA Tournament appearances (4), fourth in regular-season titles (5), ninth in conference wins (101), 14th in conference winning percentage (.802), 15th in postseason appearances (5), 16th in overall wins (150), and 19th in overall winning percentage (.661).
The Colonials have met the 20-win standard in all four seasons under Buscaglia, who has posted an overall record of 92-37 (.713) during his tenure. RMU captured four consecutive NEC regular-season championships (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) and a pair of NEC Tournament titles (2017, 2019), and has also appeared in two NCAA Tournaments (2017, 2019) and the 2018 Postseason Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).
RMU has also thrived in the classroom,
serving as the only Division I program to rank inside the top four of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25 Team Honor Roll four years running.
In July of 2020, the Colonials joined the Horizon League in 10 of its 16 intercollegiate athletic programs.
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