• Game Notes (PDF)
• Free Live Game Audio (Courtesy of WUEV)
Growing up in Lexington, Kentucky, Shannon and Natalie Novosel would spend countless hours playing pick-up basketball against each other in the backyard. On Wednesday night, the court at Notre Dame’s Joyce Center will server as their backyard, as Shannon will lead her University of Evansville Purple Aces to South Bend, Indiana to battle Natalie’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. central time and the game can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
Shannon is entering her senior season at UE and earned preseason all-Missouri Valley Conference honors this fall, after capturing second-team all-Valley honors last year as a junior. Natalie, meanwhile, is just beginning her freshman season at Notre Dame, after being ranked as one of the nation’s top high school players last season. While the pair teamed up in high school to help Lexington Catholic High School to the 2005 Kentucky state title and a No. 6 ranking nationally, Wednesday night’s game will be the first time they will play against one another in an organized game.
“It will be a little weird to have Natalie on the other team, because we have always played together on the same team, but it will also be a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to Wednesday’s game,” said
Shannon Novosel. “It is not every day that you get to play against your sister in a game, let alone to play against a team the caliber of Notre Dame.
“I know that my parents (Nick and Jaine) will be busy people, because they plan to sit behind one team’s bench for one half, and then switch sides at halftime. But, I am really excited to be able to play against my sister here in college, especially in my senior season.”
Both teams will bring a 1-0 record into Wednesday’s contest, after picking up season-opening wins over the weekend against a pair of NCAA Tournament participants from last year. Evansville out-raced preseason Atlantic Sun Conference favorite East Tennessee State, 83-73, on Saturday, as seniors
Ashley Austin and
Robyn Jennings both recorded career-high 20-point performances. Austin was named the State Farm MVC Player of the Week on Monday for her efforts, as she also recorded a team-high 10 rebounds to post her second career double-double at UE.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, knocked off Southeastern Conference power LSU, 62-53, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday, behind 19 points from honorable mention all-Big East guard and Sports Illustrated cover girl Ashley Barlow. The Fighting Irish, ranked No. 14 in the preseason USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, moved up to No. 15 nationally in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, after knocking off the nationally-ranked Tigers.
“Notre Dame is perennially one of the top programs in the country, and this season is no exception,” said UE head coach
Misty Murphy. “It will obviously be a challenge for us on Wednesday, but I think that our players are really looking forward to playing a team like Notre Dame and the experience will only help us when we reach conference play.”
Wednesday’s game will renew an old conference rivalry for the two in-state schools, as UE and Notre Dame have not met since the 1993-94 season, when both schools were part of the then-Midwestern Collegiate Conference. The series dates back to the 1983-84 season, when both UE and UND were parts of the old North Star Conference. Overall, Notre Dame leads the all-time series 18-1 over Evansville, having won three-straight meetings in the series.
