Eastern Illinois women's basketball head coach Marqus McGlothan has announced the Panthers non-conference schedule for the upcoming 2026-27 season.
 
The OVC portion of the Panthers schedule is set to be released by the conference in early August.
 
EIU will be at home for a pair of exhibition games in late October hosting Quincy on Oct. 22 and Illinois Wesleyan on Oct. 27.    The regular season then opens with four straight games on the road including a three-game swing through the state of Iowa.   EIU opens on Nov. 3 at Drake followed by games at Iowa on Nov. 5 and Iowa State on Nov. 6.  The early season road trip ends Nov. 11 at Saint Louis.
 
The regular season home opener will take place on Saturday, November 14 with EIU hosting Evansville.  That is one of four home non-conference regular season games at Groniger Arena.  EIU welcomes Oakland on Nov. 25, Illinois State on Dec. 3 and Indiana State on Dec. 9.
 
The Panthers remaining November road games include stops at Southern Illinois (Nov. 17), Murray State (Nov. 21) and Green Bay (Nov. 28).
 
The December non-conference schedule includes four games against Power Conference schools with trips to Missouri (Dec. 6), Purdue (Dec. 13), DePaul (Dec. 17) and Northwestern (Dec. 21).
 
The Panthers return seven players from last season including Ava Stoller, Clara Glad and Meioshe Mason who all started 25 or more games last season.   Center Abbie Boutilier appeared in 12 games last year with six starts prior to an injury at the start of OVC play.  Additional returning players from last season are Adriana Arroyo, Nyah Hardy and Alanna Phillipo.