This Week: Notre Dame College hosts Slippery Rock and Ursuline this week in two non-conference games to finish out 2019. The Falcons welcome SRU on Tuesday, December 17, at 6 p.m. before playing Ursuline on Saturday, December 21, at 2 p.m.

Records: The Falcons improved to 9-1 (5-1 MEC) after two conference wins last week to stay atop the Mountain East standings. Slippery Rock is 2-6 this season with an 0-3 record in the PSAC. The Rock are currently on a four-game losing streak. Ursuline has also suffered a string of losses, falling in three-straight games to drop to 2-8 (0-3 GMAC) on the year.

Coaches Corner: Lauren Macer is in her third season as head coach of the Falcons. She holds a record of 47-24, 34-16 MEC. Bobby McGraw is in his sixth year at the helm of the Slippery Rock program where he served as an assistant coach prior to taking over. As a head coach, McGraw is 59-88. Shannon Sword is in her eighth season at Ursuline. Sword took over for the Arrows after previously serving as an assistant coach at Ashland where she helped lead that team to an appearance in the National Championship game in the 2011-12 season.

Rankings: None of these teams were ranked in the December 16 Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll.

Series History: The Falcons have not yet played Slippery Rock in their NCAA Division II history. NDC's series with Ursuline has been close since Notre Dame entered the DII ranks. The Falcons currently lead the Arrows 3-2 after winning the last two contests. NDC is 2-0 at home against UC in that time, and overall 4-0 against Ursuline at hime dating back to 2008.

Noting the Falcons: The Notre Dame guards have been excellent so far this season in both spreading the ball out on offense and taking the ball away on defense. Seina Adachi leads the team with 31 assists and 26 steals, and Jada Marone is not far behind with 26 assists and 22 steals. Katie Karalic ranks third in those categories with marks of 21 and 12. Seniors Adachi and Karalic have now both eclipsed 200 career assists. Adachi currently ranks 11th in NDC's career history with 239 assists, just one away from entering the Falcons' top 10; she entered the top 10 in steals last week after earning three takeaways in both games to bring her total up to 211, which ranks eighth all time.
 
Noting the Rock: Slippery Rock has experience in close games this season as both of the team's wins have been by three points or fewer. The Rock most recently lost to Shepherd by three points, but their prior five losses were by an average margin of 14.4 points. SRU has been able to get to the free throw line a lot this season as they have averaged 20.0 free throw makes per game, a rate that would rank first in the Mountain East. A big part of that average came in the Rock's win at Salem where they made 44 of their 52 attempts from the charity stripe. Brooke Hinderliter, who leads the Rock with 18.6 points per game, has been near perfect from the free throw line, making 52 of her 59 attempts in eight starts this year.  
  
Noting the Arrows: When the Falcons play Ursuline, they will need to limit the Arrows ability to rebound. UC is 2-1 this season when gathering more than 40 rebounds. In games where they have totaled fewer than 40, the Arrows are 0-7. Senior Julia Cardwell will be the one to worry about as she is the only player at Ursuline to average more than 5.0 rebounds per game. Cardwell has averaged 8.5 boards this year as a stretch forward who also leads her team with 21 threes.