RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Looking to ring in the New Year strong, the Concordia University Chicago Women's Basketball team readies for two east coast matchups to open 2020. They will take part in the St.Mary's New Year's Classic over two days, beginning on Friday against the Host St. Mary's. They then will face a tough test on Saturday when they take on Christopher Newport University.
 
About the Cougars: The Cougars have not faced St.Mary's in program history. CUC has just one matchup with Christopher Newport, which was a loss back in 2002. CUC comes into the weekend 1-6 overall and 1-4 in NACC play. These will be games seven and eight on the road for the Cougars this season. CUC has played just one home game thus far. Offensively Tara Hastings has been the top scorer this season. The freshman is averaging 13.3 points per game on the year, and has started in all seven games. She also leads the team with 15 steals. Senior Michaela Thornton has been strong offensively as well. She is second on the team in scoring with a 9.4 points per game average. She is also second on the team with 6.4 rebounds per game. Charisma Robinson has come on as of late for CUC. The freshman has moved into the starting lineup and produced. Robinson has pulled down six or more rebounds in her last four games, and has scored in double figures twice over the same span.
 
About the Seahawks: The St. Mary's Seahawks come into the weekend 3-6 overall and 2-3 at home this year. They last played on December 15 when they won 45-43 at home against Meat. Mennonite. As a team the Seahawks average 53 points per game. They are led by Gina Seifert who averages 12.2 point per game and shoots just over 40 percent from the floor. She also leads the team with 7.2 rebounds per game. Kelli Jenkins and Kyaira Preist also average double figure points for St. Mary's.
 
About the Captains:  The Christopher Newport Captains come into the weekend 9-4 overall. They will take on Susquehanna University on Friday night before taking on CUC on Saturday. CNU ranks 9^th nationally in scoring with 82.2 points per game. They also rank fifth nationally in turnover forced (30.4) and steals (17.4). Sondra Fan leads the high scoring Captains with an 11.8 points per game average. In total four different players average in double figures for CNU. Anaya Simmons leads the team on the boards, bringing down 6.2 per contest. As a team Christopher Newport is shooting just under 39 percent from the floor this season.
 
Up Next: The Cougars return home from their trip and will jump back into NACC play right away. They will take on Aurora on Wednesday night inside Geiseman before heading to Dominican on Saturday.