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The University of Montana women’s basketball team will face the 2009 WNIT champion, an NCAA tournament team and three other WNIT squads in 2009-10 according to Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig, who released the program’s schedule Wednesday.

Montana will face 2009 WNIT champion South Florida in the opening round of Loyola Marymount’s Thanksgiving tournament, Gonzaga, which advanced to the second round of last spring’s NCAA tournament, and WNIT qualifiers Portland, UC Riverside and Portland State.

For the first time since the 1979-80 season, Selvig’s second year, the Lady Griz will not host a winter tournament.

Montana went 28-5 in 2008-09, won the Big Sky Conference regular-season title with a 15-1 league mark and advanced to the program’s 17th NCAA tournament.

The Lady Griz will be replacing four graduated seniors who won 101 games in four seasons and three regular-season Big Sky Conference championships and went to a pair of NCAA tournaments.

Mandy Morales, a two-time Big Sky MVP, and Sonya Rogers, a first-team All-Big Sky selection as a senior, combined to average more than 30 points per game last winter. Britney Lohman, a three-time second-team All-Big Sky pick, was the team’s top defensive player and ranked second on the team in rebounding (6.1/g).

Montana returns two starters in senior Lauren Beck and junior Sarah Ena. Beck averaged 6.8 points per game last winter, while Ena, who was honorable mention All-Big Sky and an all-tournament selection at the Big Sky tournament, averaged 10.7 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game.

“It’s a good schedule,” Selvig said. “We have more road than home, which isn’t ideal because we’re going to be pretty young. This year more than most we’re going to be learning what this team is going to be like in the non-conference because we lost a lot of minutes with our seniors.”

Montana will open its season on the road against a pair of Mountain West Conference teams, facing Colorado State (10-21, 4-12 MWC) on Friday, Nov. 13, and Wyoming (16-14, 8-8 MWC) on Sunday, Nov. 15.

The Rams and Cowgirls both ended their seasons at the 2009 Mountain West tournament, with Wyoming going out in the first round and Colorado State in the quarterfinals.

Montana defeated both Colorado State, 68-53, and Wyoming, 71-64, at home last year.

The Lady Griz will open their home schedule with games against Oregon (9-21, 5-13 Pac-10) on Sunday, Nov. 22, and Denver (16-15, 10-8 Sun Belt) on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

The Ducks will be playing one of their early games under first-year coach Paul Westhead, who won an NBA title as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980 and a WNBA championship as coach of the Phoenix Mercury in 2007. Westhead was hired by Oregon in March and added former Sacramento State coach Dan Muscatell to his staff in April.

Oregon, under previous coach Bev Smith, got knocked out of the Pac-10 tournament in the opening round last March.

Denver lost a double-overtime decision to Arkansas-Little Rock in the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament.

Montana won close road games at Oregon, 60-52, and Denver, 68-63, last December.

The Lady Griz will spend Thanksgiving weekend in southern California, playing at Loyola Marymount’s tournament Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27-28.

Montana will face South Florida (27-10, 8-8 Big East) in the opening round of LMU’s tournament, then either the host Lions (18-12, 7-7 West Coast) or St. Louis (12-18, 6-8 Atlantic 10) in Saturday’s consolation or championship game.

South Florida lost to eventual national champion Connecticut in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament last March but advanced to the WNIT. The Bulls, who will return just two starters in 2009-10, rolled to five wins in the tournament, including a 75-71 victory at Kansas in the championship game.

Loyola Marymount lost in the semifinals of the West Coast tournament. St. Louis ended its season in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Following home games against Frontier Conference members Great Falls (7-23, 1-13 FC) and Montana-Western (9-21, 4-10 FC) to open the month of December on Sunday the sixth and Wednesday the ninth, Montana will travel to Spokane for a game at Gonzaga (27-7, 12-2 West Coast) on Friday, Dec. 11.

The Lady Griz and Bulldogs both advanced to the 2009 NCAA tournament, with both playing in Seattle, Wash., as part of the Oklahoma City Region. No. 13 Montana fell to No. 4 Pittsburgh in its first-round game, while No. 12 Gonzaga upset No. 5 Xavier in the opening round before dropping a close 65-60 decision to the Panthers in the second round.

Gonzaga won at Montana by six last December, 69-63, snapping the Lady Griz’ 21-game home-court winning streak.

“Gonzaga’s been real good for a number of years now, and they return a great team,” Selvig said. “They should be even better this year than they were last year.”

Following a home game against Idaho (13-15, 10-6 Western Athletic) on Sunday, Dec. 13, the Lady Griz will close out their non-conference schedule with a pair of games against 2009 WNIT qualifiers.

Montana will go into its Christmas break with a road game at Portland (17-14, 10-4 West Coast) on Saturday, Dec. 19, then come out of the break with a home game against UC Riverside (19-12, 14-2 Big West) on Tuesday, Dec. 29.

The Pilots lost at Portland State in the opening round of the WNIT, while UC Riverside lost at Creighton, also in the first round.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t fill our Christmas tournament,” Selvig said, “but we’ve got a good Riverside team coming in. We had the round-robin filled, but somebody dropped out and we couldn’t get that spot filled. We hope to get the Holiday Classic going again next year.”

Montana will open its 2010 Big Sky Conference schedule Saturday and Monday, Jan. 2 and 4, with home games against Weber State and Idaho State.

The Lady Griz will play day-night doubleheaders with the Griz men at Montana State on Saturday, Jan. 23, and at Missoula on Saturday, Feb. 27.

The 2010 Big Sky Conference tournament will be held Thursday through Saturday, March 11-13, at the home of the regular-season champion. Montana has hosted five of the last six Big Sky tournaments.

Final 2008-09 Big Sky Conference standings

Montana  ...  28-5, 15-1 BSC
Portland State  ...  23-10, 14-2 BSC
Montana State  ...  15-15, 8-8 BSC
Idaho State  ...  11-20, 7-9 BSC
Sacramento State  ...  9-21, 7-9 BSC
Northern Arizona  ...  9-21, 6-10 BSC
Northern Colorado  ...  12-18, 5-11 BSC
Eastern Washington  ...  10-19, 5-11 BSC
Weber State  ...  10-19, 5-11 BSC