After completely remaking the Cowgirls roster, Lynn Kennedy has put the finishing touches on the women’s basketball schedule.

Kennedy, in his first year at McNeese State, announced what he called a “tough and challenging” season Thursday.

“We wanted to improve overall the teams we will play,” Kennedy said. “We wanted a nonconference schedule that will get us ready for the Southland Conference.”

Kennedy is from Eugene, Oregon, and spent the last six seasons as head coach at Portland State.

The Cowgirls’ longest stretch of road games is five, which includes a trip to the West Coast for a pair of games against California-Berkeley and Oregon on Dec. 11 and 13, respectively.

“We wanted to go to the West Coast to treat it like a conference road trip,” Kennedy said. “To play in those types of environments will be good for us down the road.

“We wanted to challenge our team against good competition in tough spots.”

The Cowgirls, who were 6-16 and lost their final six games last season, will also play at Mississippi State on Dec. 1.

McNeese will open with an exhibition at Burton Coliseum on Oct. 30 and officially start the season at Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 9.

Kennedy said it was not easy getting a schedule done after last year’s COVID-19 issues.

“There was a lot of chaos after last year,” he said. “People weren’t really sure what they should try and do. And here there wasn’t really a schedule in place so we had to start over.”

The Cowgirls will play teams from the Southeastern Conference, Pac-12, Conference USA, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference. McNeese will host NAIA Southwest Assembly of God on Nov. 13 in its home opener along with nonconference home games against Champions Christian College (Nov. 23) of the Association of Christian College Athletics, and Louisiana-Lafayette (Nov. 28), a WNIT participant last season.

Kennedy said he’s hoping the game against Louisiana Tech set for Dec. 22 will be the first back in the refurbished Legacy Center. The on-campus home to the school’s basketball teams was damaged during last year’s hurricanes Laura and Delta. “We are looking forward to getting back in there and playing in our home arena,” Kennedy said. After the Christmas break, the Cowgirls will take part in the Pre-Southland Conference Tournament in Katy, Texas (Jan. 3-5) prior to tipping off the SLC regular-season schedule against Houston Baptist on Jan. 15. The conference schedule will consist of teams playing home and home with the SLC Tournament scheduled for March 10-13 in Katy.

Cowgirls Schedule

Oct. 30 — Dillard (exhibition)

Nov. 9 — at Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Nov. 13 — Southwestern Assemblies of God

Nov. 15 — at Arkansas State

Nov. 21 — at Texas-Rio Grande Valley

Nov. 23 — Champions College

Nov. 28 — Louisiana-Lafayette

Dec. 1 — at Mississippi State

Dec. 7 — at Lamar

Dec. 11 — at California

Dec. 13 — at Oregon

Dec. 18 — at Louisiana-Monroe

Dec. 22 — Louisiana Tech

Jan. 3 — Pre-SLC Tournament

Jan. 4 — Pre-SLC Tournament

Jan. 5 — Pre-SLC Tournament

Jan. 15 — *Houston Baptist

Jan. 20 — *at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Jan. 22 — *at Incarnate Word

Jan. 27 — *Nicholls State

Jan. 29 — *New Orleans

Feb. 3 — *Southeastern Louisiana

Feb. 5 — *Northwestern State

Feb. 10 — *at Southeastern Louisiana

Feb. 12 — *at Northwestern State

Feb. 17 — *at Nicholls State

Feb. 19 — *at New Orleans

Feb. 24 — *Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Feb. 26 — *Incarnate Word

March 5 — *at Houston Baptist

March 10-13 — Southland Conference Tournament (Katy, Texas)

*—SLC game