Tough road ahead for women

As the 2012-2013 Xavier women's
basketball season approaches, it is apparent that there are some tough games on their schedule.
The team plays its first seven games at home against talented teams such as Michigan and Duke. Pre-season RPI power rankings place Duke at the No. 7 overall position, making them Xavier's highest ranked opponent on the schedule.
The team plays the University of Cincinnati in their eighth game of the season, which is also their first away game.
This aspect
could make this a difficult game for the Musketeers.
A few weeks after playing the University of Cincinnati, the team moves on to play against the neighboring Wright State.
Following Wright State, the team plays Indiana University, who went 6-24 last season and has not made many roster changes for this upcoming season.
On Dec. 28, the team will take part in the Cavalier Classic, which is a two-day tournament consisting
of Xavier, Northern Illinois, Norfolk State and Virginia.
The Musketeers will play all their conference games in the latter part of the season. The team begins against Duquesne on Jan. 13 and plays 14 conference
games ending the season at Massachusetts.
One of the more difficult matchups in conference play will be the game against St. Bonaventure, who is expected to be successful this season. In the RPI rankings they are ranked No. 15. They had a record of 31-4 overall last season.
One of the two televised games this season for Xavier will be against a very talented Richmond Spiders team. In the 2011-2012 season the Spiders went 23-9 and were able to get many people talking. Look for this team to give Xavier some trouble
this year.
Another tough conference
game for Xavier will be the Dayton Flyers. They will be playing the Flyers in Dayton. Last season the Flyers posted a 23-7 record with a 12-2 conference record and they look to continue this domination in the upcoming season.
Conference games against Fordham and Butler should prove to be good games for the Musketeers since these two teams have similar records of 12-18 and 13-17.
The Xavier women's team needs to win these matchups in order to be in the top tier of the Atlantic 10 teams this year.
The A-10 Tournament will begin on Mar. 8 in Philadelphia, Penn.