Jim Flanery has not been shy about giving his Creighton women’s basketball team a tough non-conference schedule. This season they get to enjoy a little Caribbean weather during the holidays.
Carli Tritz returns for her junior season
The Bluejays will head to Cancun before Christmas to take part in the Caribbean Classic. Miami (OH), Nevada, and South Florida will join Creighton in Cancun. The dates for this event have not been officially announced yet, but will likely be held in late December before Christmas. Last year’s Classic was held on December 20-21.
According to the Creighton media guide, the Bluejays have never played any of these teams. Both the Redhawks and the Bulls finished in the top 100 of the RPI last season while Nevada finished with an RPI of 311.
Creighton used the MVC’s automatic bid to reach the NCAA Tournament last season and almost upset St. John’s before losing at the buzzer. The Bluejays return everyone from last season except for senior DaNae Moore. Carli Tritz, Ally Jensen, and Sarah Nelson will lead the way as they head into the 2012-13 season. Tritz was an All-MVC first team member and the MVP of the Valley Tournament. Jensen and Nelson were on the MVC Scholar Athlete First Team. The trio was also a part of the All-Jesuit teams. Creighton also welcomes freshman Marissa Janning to the mix. Janning scored more than 3,000 points in her high school career and was named the top player in the state of Minnesota.
For more information on the event, you can get more here.
The trip to Cancun is just one piece of a competitive non-conference schedule that will include home games against Kansas and Nebraska as well as the start of a new series with Oklahoma. The Bluejays will also hit the road to take on the likes of Houston, South Dakota and South Dakota State.