The Gonzaga women will play an exhibition game against Northwest Christian

Meet the opponent

This Sunday the women take on the Northwest Christian Lady Beacons, an NAIA school representing the Cascade Conference. Last season was a good year for the program, finishing with a record of 17-11 (14-6).

The Beacons come into this season returning their top two scorers from a year ago. Senior guards Monique Thompson (16.2 ppg) and Niki Duncan (10.8 ppg) both have an ability to score. This might actually be their best team coming into this year, as they received the most votes ever in a preseason top 25 NAIA poll.

They've played a few games already, and have dominated opponents. In their first game, they defeated Northwest Indian College, 103-17. Several defensive school records were broken in that game.

On Wednesday, they went on the road and defeated California State University 75-36, in another defensive effort.

Now I'm not sure if Northwest Christian is really this good, or if this early schedule is the equivalent of Gonzaga's men's versus a SWAC school. Either way, should be a good test for the women, especially the perimeter defense.

What to watch out for

With Wolfram's season ending injury, all eyes will be on the twins, Jenn and LeeAnn to provide good depth in the frontcourt. It'll be interesting to see if one can separate theme from the other.

The match up to watch will be on the perimeter. The Beacons have legit scorers on the guard line, but Gonzaga comes in as the best overall defense in the WCC last year. Even as an exhibition, it should be a good tune up before the opening game against Colorado State.

The game starts Sunday at 2pm pacific time at the Kennel.