After defeating Minnesota Crookston 81-61 in an exhibition game on Thursday night, North Dakota women's basketball tips off the regular season in in Ogden, Utah at Weber State.  It will be the first regular season game for head coach Mallory Bernhard in the role as the permanent leader of the program.  Following the game on Tuesday night, the Hawks will return to Grand Forks on Wednesday and then fly to El Paso, Texas on Friday for a Saturday afternoon tilt with the Miners inside the Don Haskins Center.

The game at Weber State will begin at 5:30 p.m. central time and can be heard on 100.3 FM in Grand Forks and 740AM in Fargo with the voice of North Dakota women's basketball Jack Michaels on the call.  Live video from the Dee Events Center is available at ESPN+.  The game at UTEP tips at 2 p.m. central time with associate athletic director Kyle Doperalski filling in for Michaels on 1440 AM in Grand Forks.  Live video can be found at cusa.tv. 

Series History
North Dakota leads the all-time series with Weber State 9-3 with the first meeting occurring on January 5^th, 2013, North Dakota's first year in the Big Sky Conference.  The programs haven't met since February 1^st, 2019.  North Dakota won the first five meetings and also three of the last four.  The Weber State wins have come by six, two and eleven. 

The game against UTEP will be the first ever meeting between North Dakota and the Miners. 

Other Notes
North Dakota is 29-17 all time in season openers and 30-16 all time in its second game of the season.

About Weber State
The Wildcats, under the direction of head coach Velaida Harris who enters her fourth season, finished 2-20 in the COVID riddled 2020-2021 season.  The Wildcats were defeated in the first round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament by Northern Arizona.  Weber State was picked to finish 10^th in the Big Sky by the league coaches and 11^th by the league media – in the 11 team conference.

About UTEP
UTEP was picked to finish third in Conference USA behind El Paso native Katia Gallegos who was picked to the pre-season all-conference team for the third year in a row.  For the second consecutive pre-season Gallegos was named to the watch list for the Nancy Lieberman Award, honoring the nation's top point guard.   The Miners finished 17-8 last season winning their first round conference tournament game, but falling in their second. 

Exhibition Recap
The Fighting Hawks dominated the second half and put five players in double figures with Olivia Lane's effort of 18 points and eight rebounds.  North Dakota trailed at halftime but limited Minnesota Crookston, who already had one exhibition game under its belt to just five field goals in the final 20 minutes to complete the comeback. 

Captains
Seniors Claire Orth and Joli Daninger were voted captains by their teammates.  Orth, who has been with the program from her freshman year is primarily known as a defensive stalwart while Daninger is a graduate transfer from DePaul working on her MBA at UND.