![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cindy-griffin-vert-1.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Cindy Griffin (above) and the Hawks welcome several high-major opponents. (Photo: Josh Verlin\/CoBL)<\/p>\n
Saint Joseph\u2019s Hawks (2025: 24-10, 12-6 Atlantic 10)<\/strong> In total, St. Joe\u2019s has a pretty high volume of \u201chome cooking\u201d in its non-conference slate. Out of 11 non-conference games, seven will be played at home, with two of the four others being played in the city of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n There\u2019s potential for St. Joe\u2019s to face a pair of Philly-area alums in late December; George School product Gianna Johnson<\/strong> and Westtown product Grace Sundback<\/strong> will both come to town for the Hawk Classic, playing opposite the Hawks in a four-team, two-day bracket. December 20, Delaware plays Akron while St. Joe\u2019s takes on Le Moyne, with the winners and losers each facing off the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Temple Owls (2025: 20-11, 13-5 American)<\/strong> Things don\u2019t get any easier the following week, when Temple pays a Nov. 11 visit to West Virginia. The Owls go right back on the road Nov. 18, to take on a Richmond squad that went 17-1 in the Atlantic 10 last year.<\/p>\n Then, Temple gets a nice vacation to the Bahamas \u2014 one that will feature a challenging lineup of potential opponents at the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship; the Owls will open tournament play against Michigan State, which reached the NCAA Tournament Second Round in 2024-25.<\/p>\n The final step in Temple\u2019s gauntlet non-conference comes on December 22, when the Owls visit a Princeton team that has reached four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.<\/p>\n Villanova Wildcats (2025: 21-15, 11-7 Big East)<\/strong> Villanova\u2019s Dec. 1 trip to West Virginia serves as the main test of the non-conference slate; the Mountaineers won 25 games last season, and reached the NCAA Tournament Second Round as a No. 6 seed.<\/p>\n Villanova\u2019s only game outside of Philadelphia prior to the month of December is a trip to James Madison (Nov. 16). The Wildcats will also host a pair of 2025 NCAA Tournament teams\u00a0\u2014\u00a0defending MAAC champion Fairfield, which earned a No. 12 seed last season, and Princeton, which earned an at-large bid out of the Ivy League. The Stags\u2019 roster features Sydni Scott<\/strong>, a Cardinal O\u2019Hara product playing in her senior season after starting her college career at Arkansas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cindy Griffin (above) and the Hawks welcome several high-major opponents. (Photo: Josh Verlin\/CoBL) Saint Joseph\u2019s Hawks (2025: 24-10,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-274822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115310840120659865","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Hawks\u2019 season gets off to an intriguing start with previously-mentioned West Chester coming to Hagan Arena November 4. Cincinnati (Nov. 11) and Penn State (Nov. 16) will also pay visits to St. Joe\u2019s, providing the Hawks early opportunities for high-major wins after falling just short of an NCAA Tournament bid last season.<\/p>\n
\nThe Owls will be tested early and often, starting with a home opener against Lansdale Catholic alum Sanyiah Littlejohn<\/strong> and her George Mason (Nov. 3) team, which won more than 25 games last season and earned an NCAA Tournament bid.<\/p>\n
\nThe Wildcats, fresh off of a 20-win season and run to the WBIT Semifinals, play a non-conference schedule this season that features three of last year\u2019s NCAA Tournament teams in total. Villanova will open the season Nov. 3 against Lafayette, playing host to the career-opening homecoming of Garnet Valley product Haylie Adamski<\/strong>, who led her alma mater to last year\u2019s PIAA 6A semifinals.<\/p>\n