MARIETTA, Ga. – Laquanda Dawkins, who led the Southern Polytechnic State University women's basketball program to the NAIA Division I national tournament and a 25-6 overall record last season, has announced her team's schedule for the upcoming 2013-14 campaign.

Dawkins, who is in her fourth year at Southern Polytechnic, guided the Hornets to their second NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship appearance in the past four seasons last winter. Southern Poly, the 2013 Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament runner-up, was ranked 25th in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Postseason Top 25 Poll.

Of SPSU's 28 regular-season games this season, seven are against squads that qualified for the 2013 NAIA Division I national event (West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Xavier University of Louisiana, Bethel University in Tennessee, the College of Coastal Georgia twice and Faulkner University twice). Southern Poly also plays at Clayton State University, which went 32-1 overall last year in advancing to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

The Hornets also have two exhibition contests on the slate. SPSU travels north to take on the University of Cincinnati, an NCAA Division I member of the rugged American Athletic Conference, in early November and then in December goes to the University of South Carolina Aiken, which made it to the NCAA Division II nationals and went 22-8 overall a season ago.

"We're excited about the schedule that we were able to put together this year," Dawkins said. "I think our non-conference schedule is exciting for us because we actually get to play a lot of schools in the state of Georgia. It should be great competition playing three schools from the Peach Belt Conference and we also have the chance to play Cincinnati, and that game is at their place. So, that's exciting and it's motivating for us. We're really testing our team early in the non-conference season in order to get ready for our conference play. We're excited about the opportunity of having a challenging schedule and we're looking forward to it."

After opening the 2013-14 campaign with two non-conference games and the exhibition at Cincinnati, Southern Poly welcomes West Virginia Tech to the Hornets Nest for its home opener on Nov. 9. SSAC play begins six days later when SPSU hosts conference newcomer Blue Mountain College.

In December, Southern Poly faces three NCAA Division II opponents from the Peach Belt Conference. Following the exhibition at USC Aiken, the Hornets have more than three weeks to prepare for back-to-back contests with Clayton State and Lander University, respectively, on Dec. 20 and 21.

SPSU starts 2014 with a five-game homestand, its longest of the season, over 12 days. Xavier, which was 24-6 overall last year and rated 17th nationally in the final NAIA Division I poll of 2013, comes to Marietta on Jan. 7 for a non-conference encounter before Southern Poly plays 14 straight SSAC contests, beginning with Bethel, which was 21-11 overall in 2013-14 and No. 24 in the final rating, on Jan. 10.

The Hornets have just two road games in January, but both are challenging. SPSU is at Coastal Georgia (24-9 overall last season, ranked 28th in the final poll) on Jan. 23 and at Faulkner (26-7, No. 18) a week later.

The remainder of the schedule includes five home contests and another five away from Marietta. Two of those games are with SSAC Eastern Division foe Auburn University at Montgomery, which earned three points to rank 32nd in the NAIA's last rating. Southern Poly's final non-conference matchup is at the Hornets Nest versus Morris College on Feb. 24.

"Our side of the conference (the Eastern Division) is going to be very strong, especially with AUM and Faulkner moving over from the West to the East side," Dawkins said. "Those are two teams we'll need to compete with, but you really can't count anybody out in our conference. So, we're excited to see what's going to happen with the conference."

After concluding the regular season at SSAC East rival Southern Wesleyan University on March 1, the conference tournament is set for March 5-8 in Montgomery, Ala. The Hornets' goal, as always, is to make it back to the NAIA Division I national event, which takes place from March 19-25 in Frankfort, Ky.

"The teams we scheduled out of conference should provide competition early on that will prepare us for the conference games," Dawkins said. "Then, looking ahead to the conference tournament and possibly the national tournament, we'll have a lot of good competition under our belt that will prepare us for what we're about to face.

"We want to be better than the team last year, and that's not just from a record point of view. We want to be better as a team overall with motivating each other and making sure we're there for each other and holding everybody accountable. Like always, we want to win our conference, get to the conference tournament and do our best there, and we definitely want to get to the national tournament and be nationally ranked all year long."   

SPSU tips off the upcoming campaign at the Point University Classic in West Point, Ga. Southern Poly plays Morris on Nov. 1 and host Point the following day. The Hornets' full 2013-14 schedule can be found by clicking here.