DENVER – MSU Denver will hit the ground running this weekend when it opens the women's basketball regular season.
 
Not only will the Roadrunners face a returning NCAA Division II Tournament team on Friday, they'll also be playing the top-ranked defending national champions on Saturday.
 
"It's a double-edged sword," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Tanya Haave said. "It's good competition, and depending on how ready we are, I tend to be in favor of playing tough competition early to get ready for the conference season.
 
"I'm glad we're playing on a neutral floor instead of their home courts. But it's still going to be a challenge.
 
At the Al Kaly Shrine Classic, hosted by CSU-Pueblo, MSU Denver plays Texas A&M-Commerce at 3:30 p.m. Friday and Lubbock Christian (Texas) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce was 20-11 last season, including a 71-66 victory over the Roadrunners. The Lions are picked to finish fourth in the Lone Star Conference this season.
 
Lubbock Christian, meanwhile, is the Lone Star favorite and is ranked No. 1 in the D2SIDA (sports information directors) preseason poll and No. 2 in the WBCA (coaches) poll.
 
The Lady Chapparals are off to an 0-3 start this year … yeah, sort of.
 
All three games were exhibition games that don't count on their record, and, oh by the way, they were against nationally-ranked Division I teams: No. 15 Texas (83-73), Nos. 1 and 2 Baylor (98-63) and Nos. 8 and 10 Mississippi State (78-57). Lubbock Christian trailed Mississippi State by two points at halftime after leading for most of the first half.
 
Haave said she hasn't spent much time discussing the resume of the Roadrunners' opponents with her team. And all the focus so far has been on the first opponent, Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
"I haven't said a word about it yet," Haave said of Lubbock Christian. "But I think they kind of know."
 
MSU Denver's returning players may remember the Lubbock Christian game from last season. The Roadrunners jumped out to a 23-8 lead in that one.
 
Many of the key players from last season have departed, but holdovers include starting guard Jaiden Galloway and part-time starter Bree Wellington, a forward.
 
Newcomers being worked into the mix include junior college point guard Maggie Justinak, redshirt freshman forward Jaela Richardson and true freshman wing Ashley Bernales, who hit 6 of 8 shots from 3-point range in the Roadrunners' 79-64 exhibition victory over MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) last Saturday.
 
"I'm still getting to know them and I'm learning more about them every day," Haave said of her players. "I'm looking for combinations that play well together and which ones don't play well together. We can see some of that in practice, but nothing takes the place of seeing that in a game."
 
Moving into bigger roles this year are players such as guard Mariah Schroeder and wing Morgan Lewis.
 
"We're just beginning to scratch the surface of our potential," Haave said. "Other teams, you feel like you'll get a little bit better over the course of the season, but this team has room for a lot of growth. And that makes it a lot of fun to go to practice every day."
 
And MSU Denver has an added attribute this season – a traditional low-post game represented by Division I transfer Leya Harvey and junior college transfer Kimauri Toia.
 
"We've traditionally been an undersized team," Haave said. "But we've got some post players this year, and some big post players. We have some players who give us a physical presence."