The Iowa State women’s basketball team released its non-conference schedule for the 2018-19 season on Monday.

Prior to the seasons start, Iowa State will take part for the first time in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) preseason tournament.

The WNIT is a 16-team, invite-only tournament at the beginning of the season, and each team is guaranteed to participate in at least three games with a fourth game serving as the championship.

The teams selected are based upon their projection for the upcoming season, but only one team per conference is eligible and a team is only eligible to play once in every four years.

This season, Iowa State will be serving as a host team for its portion of the bracket.

In the first game, Iowa State will play Niagara. After that game, Iowa State will play the winner or loser of Yale and Northern Illinois, depending on the outcome of Iowa State’s game against Niagara.

“I am very excited about our non-conference schedule for our team and fans,” head coach Bill Fennelly said in a press release. “Playing in the Preseason WNIT for the first time is a great way to start the season for this team. Overall the schedule is challenging in every way so we will have to be ready to play every night.”

For Iowa State’s season opener on Nov. 21, the Cyclones will travel to Chatham, Ontario, for a game versus Eastern Michigan.

This past season, Eastern Michigan went 11-20.

The game will be a homecoming game for senior guard Bridget Carleton, a native of Chatham. Carleton was an Honorable Mention Associated Press All-American this past season.

Iowa State’s following game is a road game at South Dakota on Nov. 28.

South Dakota finished last season 29-7 and went undefeated in conference play, but were defeated by Iowa State 81-76 to begin the season.

The Cyclones’ first home game will be on Dec. 2 against Arkansas for the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

Arkansas finished 13-18 in the 2017-18 season.

Three days later, Iowa State will travel to Iowa for the annual Cy-Hawk Series.

In the 2017 Cy-Hawk game, Iowa beat Iowa State 61-55 before going on to finishing with a 24-8 record and making it to the first round of the NCAA tournament before they fell to Creighton 76-70.

After the Cy-Hawk game, Iowa State’s non-conference schedule is rounded out with home games versus North Dakota on Dec. 9, Drake on Dec. 16, Prairie View A&M on Dec. 19 and Bucknell on Dec. 29.