The Concordia Chicago women's basketball team returns to action on Saturday with a home contest against Lakeland University. The Cougars enter the game with an 0-2 record after dropping a pair of non-conference contests to Hope and Greenville. The Muskies of Lakeland currently sit at 1-1 after splitting a weekend series with Concordia Wisconsin a week ago. 

CUC won the only meeting between the two squads last year by a score of 66-58 at Geiseman after trailing by seven heading into the break. Guard Tara Hastings (New Lenox, Ill.) led all scorers in that game with 19 as a freshman. She figures to be a factor in this year's contest as she enters the game as the Cougars leading scorer. 

Hastings has not been the only impact player for the Cougars. The freshman pair of guard Emily Balaban (Manitowoc, Wis.) and forward Janie Ternes (Oak Lawn, Ill.) made their presence known in the early moments of their careers. Balaban led the Cougars in points, rebounds and assists in their most recent matchup against Greenville and Ternes added five rebounds of her own as well as a block. 

For Lakeland, forward Megan Will (Lake Mills, Wis.) was the top point scorer through the first two games, dropping 16 in the opener and 21 the following night. Their second leading scorer, guard Kacey Gardner (Evergreen Park, Ill.) was efficient in her scoring, shooting 4-6 and 2-4 from the floor en route to nine and 10 point performances. Gardner also led the team in rebounding in both games against CUW. 

The Cougars will look to their interior defenders such as Ternes and fellow freshman Kate Johnson (Lincoln, Neb.) to slow the scoring of Will. Johnson logged nearly 19 minutes of action in the Cougars' latest contest and was an efficient 3-5 from the field to go along with seven boards. 

Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. Saturday afternoon and as always the game can be found on the CUC Athletics Youtube channel.