Senior Brandi Teamer and Junior Tiffany Sardin return home this weekend as the Virginia women's basketball team heads to Chicago to play in the Mildred & Roger L. White Invitational.
Both Cavaliers grew up in the Chicago area and now have a chance to play in front of their hometown crowds.
The Cavaliers will face two tough opponents in the Windy City. They play No. 24 Houston tomorrow at 1 p.m. and the host team Northwestern on Sunday at 1 p.m. Early season wins away from home could prove to be a big help down the road since the Virginia schedule gets tough in the later season with ACC competition.
"Playing a team like Houston, who is ranked, and even Northwestern, I think it will help a lot, and we've played some tough games so far," senior LaTonya Blue said. "We just want to go out there and try to win for Brandi and Tiffany and just play our game, and hopefully we'll have a good outcome."
Virginia's schedule strength is ranked No. 2 in the country, so wins on the road could be especially hard to come by for the Cavaliers.
"It's just a very good test for us; everything we've done is a test for us," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "We have not played anyone that has really been an easy game. We've been banging heads since the 11th of November so we're just getting better, and I think it's really going to pay off in the end. I think a lot of teams get a lot of false sense of security when they play a lot of easy teams, and then when they get in the conference, it's no good because in the conference everything changes and everything gets a lot tougher."
The Cavaliers currently stand at 4-2, which is slightly better than the 3-3 record they had at this point in the season last year. Teamer and Blue are the team's statistical leaders. Teamer averages 15.7 points and 8.2 rebounds a game, while Blue follows with 10 points and 6.2 rebounds.
Virginia is coming off a 67-58 win over Liberty on Tuesday. While the win was a confidence-booster, Ryan stressed that the team must focus on what is ahead.
"Every win is important, but it's just one win," Ryan said. "Yeah, it helps your confidence a little bit, but to be honest, you don't want to forget, but you have to move on. Our focus is turned to Houston and going to Chicago. We can't really worry about where we were on Tuesday or Saturday night. We have to worry about where we are now."
The Cavaliers will look to make Teamer and Sardin's homecoming a successful one by grabbing a pair of tough road wins and completing a men's and women's basketball sweep over Northwestern.
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