The Iowa women’s basketball team will compete against Northern Illinois in the first round of the 2012 preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Nov. 9. The Hawkeyes and Huskies will play in Carver-Hawkeye Arena at noon.

The preseason WNIT has a three-game guarantee format. Second-round games will be held on Nov. 11, with the winner of the Iowa/Northern Illinois contest facing the winner of Illinois State and Morehead State. The semifinals for the event will take place on Nov. 14-15, followed by the championship on Nov. 18. Teams that lose in the first two rounds will play a consolation bracket on Nov. 16-17.

Northern Illinois finished its 2012 season with a 14-17 record. Two Husky starters will return, but eight of the team’s 11 athletes are underclassmen.

Middle Tennessee State, Kennesaw State, Memphis, and Grambling State are also in Iowa’s side of the bracket. North Carolina, Davidson, Duquesne, Liberty, Georgetown, Sacred Heart, Delaware, and Sam Houston State round out the competition.

Iowa’s first regular-season game will come in the Hawkeye Challenge on Nov. 12 against Harvard.

— by Molly Irene Olmstead