AMHERST, N.Y. - Veteran head coach David Skolen announced the 2015-16 schedule for the Daemen College women's basketball team today, a slate that's highlighted by the Wildcats' third year of competition within the East Coast Conference, and the first as a full NCAA Division II member making the team eligible for the first time to qualify for the league's postseason tournament.
 
"We look forward to playing a very challenging schedule.  Our regular season non-conference schedule should be one of toughest we have had in quite a few years as it is entirely made up of NCAA Division II teams for the first time," said Skolen who enters his 24th season at the helm, carrying 458 victories in tow.  "Playing an exhibition with a local Division I opponent will be exciting as well.  With the loss of so many great seniors in our conference, I feel there will be quite a battle for the six conference playoff spots.  We hope to be right in the middle of that." 
 
The Wildcats' 2015-16 campaign tips off with an exhibition tilt on November 7 versus University at Buffalo of NCAA Division I and the Mid-American Conference.  Daemen will make the short three-mile jaunt to UB's Alumni Arena to face the Bulls for the first time since November 8, 2010, an 88-48 exhibition win for UB.  The game will also mark Daemen's first against an NCAA Division I foe since a 75-55 regular-season loss at Cornell University on January 13, 2013.
 
The regular season gets underway with Daemen partaking in a pair of neutral site games hosted by Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester on November 13 and 14.  At RWC's beautiful Voller Athletic Center, Daemen will face a pair of opponents from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, matching up first with Post University before taking on Nyack College the following day.  Post, a conference tournament qualifier which went 7-22 overall and 7-12 in the CACC last season, will be seeking its first non-conference win since 2013-14.  Nyack went 8-18 overall and matched Post with a 7-12 conference mark last season.  The Wildcats' opening game versus Post will be there first-ever meeting with the Eagles while Nyack owns a 2-1 edge in the all-time series with Daemen.
 
Daemen's first true road game of the regular season comes on November 21 when the Wildcats head west on Interstate-90 to face Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio.  Lake Erie, a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is coming off a 10-18 campaign.
 
Skolen's squad makes its much anticipated home debut over Thanksgiving weekend, hosting Le Moyne College for a non-conference tussle on Saturday, November 28.  The Wildcats and Dolphins last met on November 13, 2013 in Syracuse with Le Moyne scoring an 80-68 win.  Seven of the eight Daemen players to see action in that game remain on the roster for 2015-16.  The 2013 matchup was the first for the two teams since meeting seven times between 1996 and 2004.  Le Moyne went 17-14 last season, advancing to the Northeast-10 Conference tournament quarterfinals.  This year's meeting kicks off a three-game home-stand for the Wildcats.
 
Edinboro University visits Lumsden Gymnasium on December 12 in the Wildcats' final tune up for ECC play, marking the teams' first meeting since November 17, 2009, a Fighting Scots' victory at home.  A 20-game winner last season, Edinboro (20-8 in 2014) qualified for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament for the sixth-straight season, advancing to the quarterfinal round before bowing out.
 
ECC play gets going a day later (December 13) when powerhouse University of the District of Columbia invades Lumsden Gym.  Daemen will seek its first-ever win over UDC which has swept the teams' four meetings over the last two seasons. The Firebirds received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II tournament last season, falling in the East Regional quarterfinal to cap a 25-5 campaign.
 
Daemen heads into the holiday break with road conference matchups at Dowling College (December 18) and University of Bridgeport (December 20).  The Wildcats have combined to go 5-3 against the Golden Lions and Purple Knights, including a pair of season sweeps of the respective series last season.  They'll return from the break with a non-conference game at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. On December 30.
 
As the calendar flips to 2016, Daemen opens the New Year by hosting St. Thomas Aquinas College on January 7, followed by a home game versus Mercy College on January 9.  Daemen and Mercy have had some memorable matchups over the last two seasons, including a 93-91 Mercy win in the teams' first-ever matchup back on January 6, 2014, a game in which Daemen's Raeann Stilwell (Cheektowaga, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) erupted for a career-high 36 points.  The Wildcats would go on to salvage a split of the season series that year, before sweeping last year's two matchups, including a 79-76 overtime win here last February 21.  Stilwell hit the game-tying three-pointer at the end of regulation and scored the final six points in overtime as part of a 17-point, 10-rebound performance.
 
Daemen visits Roberts Wesleyan on January 12 to start a string of three-straight road games.  The Wildcats have more history with RWC than with anyone else in the ECC, dating back to the teams' days as members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the American Mideast Conference.  Daemen owns a 39-18 advantage in the all-time series after splitting last season's pair of games.
 
Road games at Long Island University Post (January 15) and New York Institute of Technology (January 17), as well as home tilts versus Molloy College (January 22) and Queens College (January 24) conclude the first round of conference play.  Three of the four (LIU Post, NYIT, Queens) qualified for the ECC tournament last season with Queens winning the conference title and earning an automatic bid to the national tournament.
 
The second round of ECC play opens with Daemen visiting UDC on January 29.  Dowling (February 5) and Bridgeport (February 7) visit Lumsden Gym before the Wildcats head back on the road to face St. Thomas Aquinas (February 11) and Mercy (February 13).
 
RWC makes its annual trip to Amherst on February 16.  Daemen will seek its second-straight home win against the Redhawks.  Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) scored 11 of her 14 points in the final six minutes to lead Daemen past RWC, 70-69, here last season.
 
The home portion of the schedule concludes with games against LIU Post (February 19) and NYIT (February 21).
 
The 2015-16 regular season ends with road games at Molloy (February 26) and Queens (February 28).
 
The ECC tournament will feature the top six teams in the final regular season standings.  The play-in round is slated for March 2 and will be played at the campuses of the No. 3 and 4 seeds with the top two seeds receiving a bye to the semifinal round.  The semifinals (March 5) and finals (March 6) will be hosted by District of Columbia.
 
Daemen returns 12 players off last season's roster which accomplished a 14-15 overall record, including an 8-12 mark in the ECC which would have put them a game out of playoff contention had they been eligible.  The 12 returners constitute 80-percent of the team's scoring from a season ago, led by the afore-mentioned Saba (14.2 ppg) and Stilwell (12.7 ppg).
 
For continuing coverage and breaking news on the Daemen women's basketball team throughout the season, stay tuned to daemenwildcats.com and follow @DaemenWBB and @DaemenAthletics on Twitter.