DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University women's basketball team, the two-time defending Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champions, announced its 2018-19 MVC schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 4. The traditional 18-game, round-robin Valley format completes the 2018-19 schedule after Drake announced a challenging 12-game non-conference slate last week.
 
The non-conference schedule features games with five opponents that made the 2018 NCAA Tournament and a trip to the inaugural Vancouver Showcase, where the Bulldogs start against Rutgers in a strong tournament field that includes the defending national champions, Notre Dame and East Tennessee State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, South Carolina and Western Kentucky.
 
Drake, coming off another historic season, which included going to the NCAA Tournament for the 12^th time in program history and a second consecutive undefeated run during the MVC regular season and tournament, starts league play on the road at Bradley Jan. 4. The Bulldogs close their first MVC road trip at Illinois State Jan. 6.
 
Drake hosts Loyola (Jan. 11) and Valparaiso (Jan. 13) before three road games, UNI (Jan. 18), Indiana State (Jan. 25) and Evansville (Jan. 27) close the month of January.
 
February begins with home contests against Missouri State (Feb. 1) and SIU (Feb. 3). The Bulldogs travel to Valparaiso (Feb. 8) and Loyola (Feb. 10) before a season-long three-game homestand that includes games versus UNI (Feb. 15), Evansville (Feb. 22) and Indiana State (Feb. 24).
 
March starts with road games at SIU (March 1) and at Missouri State (March 3) before the final week of the regular season that features home games versus Illinois State (March 7) and Bradley (March 9).
 
The 2019 MVC Championship is set for March 14-17 at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill.
 
All game times and broadcast details will be released on www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com as they become available. For ticket information visit www.draketix.com and to buy season tickets call 515-271-DOGS (3647).