POMONA, Calif. - After a pair of close losses to start the season, the Cal Poly Pomona women's basketball team will look to bounce back on Wednesday when the Broncos play their home opener against Academy of Art.
 
Kellogg Gym is a familiar venue for the Urban Knights, a squad that participated in the West Regional that CPP hosted in March.
 
This Wednesday's 6 p.m. game will be the first home game for the Broncos since March 17, when CPP captured the regional title to advance to the Elite Eight for the second time in the last four years under the leadership of head coach Danelle Bishop.
 
The Wednesday matchup will mark the first-ever meeting between the Broncos and Urban Knights. Last year, Academy of Art won the PacWest Conference title.
 
The Broncos' tough non-conference schedule continues Sunday with a 1 p.m. game at Simon Fraser. A road trip from Pomona to Burnaby, British Columbia, consists of 1,293 miles, but thankfully CPP will be choosing air travel.
 
It'll be the first time that the Broncos' women's basketball program has competed in Canada. Previous postseason trips include visits to Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.
 
In the narrow losses to Point Loma and Azusa Pacific last weekend, senior center Jada Blackwell picked up where she left off in the 2013-14 campaign when she was a finalist for National Player of the Year. So far this season, she's posted averages of 30 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per contest.
 
This week's pair of games will conclude the Broncos' non-conference schedule. For CPP, California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) will begin on Friday, Dec. 5 with a road game at Cal State East Bay. In the first action of 2014-15, the Pioneers dropped their season opener to Saint Martin's but rebounded with a win over Western Oregon.