KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The 51st season of Truman State Women's Basketball will tip off this weekend at the GLVC/GMAC Conference Challenge event. The Bulldogs will open with host Hillsdale (Mich.) College on Saturday and next play Ursuline (Ohio) College on Sunday.

This will be the Bulldogs first ever meeting with Hillsdale on the basketball court as the Chargers went 13-14 last season and 10-11 in the GLIAC. They were picked fifth in the preseason coaches poll conducted by the league and return top scorer Grace Touchette (16.6/game) and rebounder Sydney Mills (10.8/game).

Ursuline downed the Bulldogs 87-77 on their home court last year while Truman State won 87-75 in Quincy, Illinois in 2019. Four Bulldogs scored in double figures with returners Ellie Weltha scoring 17 and Hannah Belanger adding 16 however Michaela Cloonan tallied 28 points as the Arrows used a big third quarter (31-13) to propel themselves to the win. Ursuline was selected eighth out of 13 teams in the GMAC.

Truman State was picked second in the GLVC coaches poll and returns their top two leading scorers from last season in Hannah Belanger and Ellie Weltha. Both were selected first team all-GLVC last season with Belanger averaging 17.1 points per game and Weltha 16.1 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.

Head Coach Theo Dean enters his fourth season on the bench for the Bulldogs and is 55-24 with an 18-11 mark last season and 13-6 GLVC record. In addition to Belanger and Weltha, Dean returns six players that played for Truman last season along with two transfers and three freshmen.

Returning for Truman is Gracie Stugart, Claire Rake, Nicole Dorn, Emma Bulman, Hannah Pinkston and Maddie Niemeier. Pinkston started 13 games last season with four by Stugart and two by Rake.

Gracie Neff is a transfer from Lindenwood, who has started 35 of 45 career games and Alex Fanning is a graduate transfer from Benedictine University. Fanning has 240 career blocks, that would rank first at Truman State. She has started 71 of 78 career games with 13.1 points and 11.3 rebounds per night and was the NACC Player of the Year for the second time following last season.

The Bulldogs will play four non-conference games against members of the GMAC with later dates of Ashland (Ohio) and Cedarville (Ohio) coming November 22-23 in Springfield, Missouri. Ashland is the preseason favorite in the league and Cedarville was picked sixth.

Following this weekend's action, the Bulldogs travel to Missouri Western on Wednesday and Upper Iowa next Saturday for two more non-conference games.