NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State women’s basketball coach Debra Clark revealed her team’s 2015-16 schedule on Friday. The non-conference slate includes road games against Mississippi State, Virginia and William & Mary, and a trio of regular-season home matchups at Joseph Echols Hall.

“I am thrilled with our schedule for this season. We have a very competitive non-conference schedule to include ACC opponent University of Virginia and SEC opponent Mississippi State,” Clark said. “I’m pleased that three of our non-conference games will be played at home. I feel our non-conference schedule will prepare us well for the challenging competition we’ll meet in the MEAC.”

After a home exhibition game against Virginia Union on Monday, Nov. 9, the Spartans open up the 2015-16 season at Echols Hall against USC Upstate on Friday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. It will be the sixth meeting all-time between the two teams – both holding the Spartan nickname – and their third matchup in the last five seasons.

The Spartans’ first road trip of the year takes them up Interstate 64 west-bound to Charlottesville, where NSU will meet U.Va. for the 10th time in their history and first time since 2012-13 on Nov. 16. U.Va. won 17 games and advanced to the WNIT last season.

The Spartans’ next contest is also on the road, at Loyola (Md.) on Nov. 21.

NSU’s second home game of the year is on Tuesday, Nov. 24 against Oakland (Mich.) University of the Horizon League. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. at Echols Hall. The teams’ only other meeting came in 1991-92.

The Spartans’ November slate concludes in SEC country against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., on Nov. 27. That contest marks just NSU’s second-ever matchup against an SEC team and first since facing LSU in early 1979. MSU went 27-7 last season and finished 18th in the final USA Today Coaches Poll after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

December’s schedule includes six games, but just one at Echols Hall. The Spartans open MEAC play at Morgan State on Dec. 5. Following first-semester exams, NSU hosts UNC Wilmington of the CAA on Sunday, Dec. 13. Road games at William & Mary (Dec. 17) and Marshall (Dec. 20) and a tournament at Monmouth wrap up the 2015 portion of the schedule. The Spartans face La Salle (Dec. 29) and then either tourney host Monmouth or St. Francis Brooklyn on Dec. 30 in West Long Branch, N.J., as part of the Monmouth tournament. NSU also played in Monmouth’s holiday tournament in the 2011-12 season.

The 2016 portion of NSU’s schedule consists solely of MEAC opposition. The conference slate resumes on Monday, Jan. 4 at Coppin State. MEAC home doubleheaders with Florida A&M (Jan. 9), Bethune-Cookman (Jan. 11), South Carolina State (Jan. 23) and Savannah State (Jan. 25) highlight NSU’s January schedule. NSU also travels to North Carolina for a MEAC road swing at North Carolina Central (Jan. 16) and North Carolina A&T (Jan. 18), and to Hampton for the first of two Battle of the Bay matchups on Jan. 30.

The remaining conference schedule includes road games at Howard (Feb. 6), UMES (Feb. 8) and Delaware State (Feb. 22), and home tilts against Morgan State (Feb. 13), Coppin State (Feb. 20), Howard (Feb. 29) and Hampton (March 3) to close the regular season.

The MEAC tournament runs March 7-12 at the Norfolk Scope Arena.