By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Western Illinois’ women’s basketball team will have road games with Iowa and Drake and a home game with Bradley on its 2025-26 nonconference schedule.

The Leathernecks’ entire schedule, which includes seven nonconference regular-season home games, was released on Thursday.

Western Illinois brings back four starters from last season’s 17-17 team — Raegan McCowan (22.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Mia Nicastro (15.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Addi Brownfield (8.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and Allie Meadows (7.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.1 apg).

Western Illinois plays host to Quincy in an October 28 exhibition game, then opens the regular season on November 4 against Westminster. The Leathernecks’ first road game is November 11 against Northern Illinois, then they return home for a November 17 game against Chicago State and November 20 against Bradley.

The Hawkeyes play at Iowa, which reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, on November 26, then play host to St. Francis on December 4.

The nonconference schedule concludes with a road game against Drake on December 7, then home games against Columbia College (December 9) and Omaha (December 13).

The Leathernecks open Ohio Valley Conference play on December 18 at Lindenwood, then play host to SIUE on December 22.

WIU is off until the January 1 game at UT-Martin and a January 3 game at Southeast Missouri State. The Leathernecks return home for a January 8 game against Tennessee State and a January 10 game against Tennessee Tech.

Western Illinois has a four-game road stretch — Eastern Illinois (January 13), Little Rock (January 17), Morehead State (January 22), and Southern Indiana (January 24).

The Leathernecks play host to Southeast Missouri State on January 29 and UT-Martin on January 31 then, after road games against Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech the following weekend, start a four-game home stretch with Eastern Illinois (Feb. 10), Little Rock (Feb. 12), Southern Indiana (Feb. 19), and Morehead State (Feb. 21). 

The Leathernecks’ final road game of the regular season is at SIUE on February 26. They close the season with a February 28 home game with Lindenwood.