The Lady Crusaders started their season Friday night playing against Penn State Mont Alto at Davis College in Johnson City, New York. It is a young team this year with only one upperclassmen on the team this semester, Junior Elizabeth Ford. The team welcomes eight new freshman including Gemma McMahon and Helena Briggs who both made their starting debut Friday night.

The women started off very well and had a solid first half which included a strong defensive effort by sophomore point guard Danielle Corcoran who was tasked with defending the best player on the Lady Nittany Lions' team. Bryn Burgess who returns for her sophomore year after a tremendous freshman season, got the Crusaders off to a good start especially offensively. Despite all the new faces the Lady Crusaders showed little signs of nerves as they played Penn State to a near tie with the halftime score of 29-32.

The second-half saw Penn State come out and hit some 3's and tighten up their defensive pressure. "We decided to take away their inside game and in the first half they were not hitting their outside shots, but they start hitting them in the second half and that is what allowed them to pull away" said first year women's coach Chris Vander Woude. The fourth quarter, as is the new structure in college women's basketball, saw the lady Crusaders make a come back and cut the lead to six with just over five minutes to play with made shots by Gemma McMahon and Bryn Burgess. Unfortunately Penn State kept hitting their outside shots and pulled away in the final minutes.

In the end the lady Crusaders lost 42-59. Bryn burgess led all scorers with 23 points and 14 rebounds. "It was a good first game, after such a long trip and so many new faces to play a tough team like Penn State even for most of the game I thought it was a big success for her team. I was really proud with how hard we played especially defensively, and how well the freshman adjusted. I know as the season goes on we will only improve as we get more comfortable to playing with each other" said Coach Vander Woude.