FGCU Women Open at Indiana on Tuesday Night, in a Rematch of Last Season's 82-64 Loss in Fort Myers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — FGCU's women open their season Tuesday night where last season's frustrations are waiting for them. The Eagles visit Indiana at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (7 p.m. ET) in a rematch of last season's meeting in Fort Myers, which the Hoosiers won 82-64. The all-time series is tied 1-1, and it is the first meeting in Bloomington. Indiana returns just four players from an 18-14 team — two of them starters — but the four who left were replaced by four experienced transfers, every one from a Power Four program that reached the NCAA Tournament, carrying 378 combined games and 139 starts between them.

The names to know are Indiana's returners: junior guard Lenée Beaumont, who averaged 13.4 points last season, and junior forward Zania Socka-Nguemen, who averaged 11.8 points and 8.7 rebounds before an injury sidelined her. FGCU, picked to finish first in the Atlantic Sun with three preseason all-conference selections back, is the league favorite with something to prove anyway: last season's 16-16 finish was the worst record in program history, the Eagles missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016, and a quarterfinal loss to Stetson ended a decade-long run with the ASUN crown. Head coach Raina Harmon, a former Iowa assistant, enters her second season with that season as the lesson.

An opening win in Bloomington would not erase any of it, but it would reprice the winter in a hurry — and the schedule gives the Eagles no soft landing either way. Indiana stays home to host Southern Illinois on Friday. FGCU comes home to Alico Arena for its home opener against Arkansas State on Saturday, November 7, at 2 p.m. Tuesday night's result files here as soon as it is final.