FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- The Fairmont State women's basketball team will hit the road over the weekend for the CIAA/MEC Challenge hosted by Fayetteville State University. The Falcons will open the season on Friday at 6 p.m. against Shaw University in a neutral site matchup. FSU will wrap up their opening weekend of action on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. against the hosts Fayetteville State University.
Concord will join Fairmont State as the two MEC teams at the event in a rematch of last seasons kickoff challenge in Fairmont. The Falcons defeated Fayetteville State (63-50) and Shaw (93-56) at home last season during the opening weekend of the year. The Mountain Lions dropped games to both Shaw (56-69) and Fayetteville State (45-57) last season.
Fairmont State Women's Basketball Notebook- Fairmont State finished the 2014-15 season with a 22-8 overall record and a 15-7 mark in the Mountain East Conference.
- The Falcons season ended with a second-round loss to Wheeling Jesuit at the Mountain East Conference Tournament
- FSU will be replacing its top three scorers from a season ago as Hailey Garrett, Hallie Gunnoe and Emily Lohr each wrapped up their FSU basketball careers last season. Gunnoe is now an assistant on Steve McDonald's staff.
- Emily Puskarich returns as the leading scorer for the Falcons, the three-point threat averaged 8.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last season.
- Amanda Ruffner also returns in the post for the Falcons after being the sixth-man a season ago. Ruffner averaged 7.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and shot over 60 percent from the field as a sophomore.
- Makenzie White will also return to the lineup for Fairmont State after missing last season due to injury. White averaged 15 points and led the MEC in assists per game (5.5) during her sophomore season and earned second team all-league honors.
- One-year transfer Katie Nunan returns to Fairmont State after spending the last three seasons at Akron University. The Fairmont native has a career-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting last season against Belmont (11/28).
- After competing in this weekend's MEC/CIAA Challenge in Fayetteville, the Falcons will play seven of the next ten games at Joe Retton Arena.
