WALTHAM, Mass. – After playing six of the first seven away from Waltham and with two more road contests on tap for next week, the Bentley University women's basketball will get to enjoy a rare home game Saturday afternoon at the Dana Center with St. Michael's College providing the opposition. Tip-off is slated at 1:30 pm with a webcast available at www.NE10NOW.tv and www.bentleyfalcons.tv.

The lack of home games hasn't affected Hall of Fame coach Barbara Stevens' team as the Falcons are off to a 7-0 start (3-0 Northeast-10) and are ranked sixth in the WBCA Division II coaches' poll.

St. Michael's will make the trip from Vermont with records of 2-4 overall and 1-3 Northeast-10 following a 69-58 loss to Assumption Wednesday. The Purple Knights opened the season with a 72-62 win against Mercy College and also own a ten-point victory over Franklin Pierce.

Bentley kept its record unblemished with a start-to-finish 80-56 win at Franklin Pierce Wednesday. The Falcons vaulted out of the gate with 14 straight points on 6-of-6 shooting and reached the 80-point mark for the sixth time in seven games.

Seven players scored at least seven points for the Falcons against the Ravens with guard Katie Meriggioli (Waunakee, Wis./Edgewood HS) at the top of the list with 17 points as she continued a strong start to her sophomore year. Senior center Victoria Lux (Arundel, Maine/Thornton Academy) added an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double in only 18 minutes of action. Both were among four Bentley players who recorded four assists in the contest.

Meriggioli, after scoring a total of 43 in the last two games, has taken over the team lead in scoring at 15 per game. She's shooting 56 percent overall, is fifth in the conference in three-point accuracy (15-31, .484) and is second to Lux in rebounding with 6.4 a game.

Lux (14.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and senior guard/forward Megan Lewis (Sevenoaks, England) (11.3 ppg) are the other double-figure scorers for the Falcons, who also have seven players providing between 6.4 and 9.5 points a game. Lux is moving closer to becoming Bentley's 36th 1,000-point scorer, beginning the weekend 33 away.

Bentley is ranked in Division II's top ten statistically in a number of categories, including third in assists (20.6), fourth in three-point accuracy (.434), fifth in free throws made (17.9), sixth in scoring margin (+26.6), eighth in scoring (85.4) and field goal percentage (.481), and ninth in rebound margin (+12.9).

Offense has been an issue for St. Michael's in its losses with the Purple Knights averaging only 48.3 points in those four games.  They are shooting .405 overall but make only 4.7 three-pointers and 6.2 free throws per game.

Senior guard Emily Ferrari, a third-team Google Cloud Academic All-America last season, leads the Purple Knight offense as she's averaging 13 a game and is one of two players on the team making two steals a game. Brianna Purcell, who scores 6.3 per game, is the other.

Senior forward Samantha Delaney, who missed the Franklin Pierce game after playing only five minutes in the previous contest, is the team's number two scorer with a 9.2 average.

Bentley has won the last six times the two programs have met, including 81-47 and 75-63 last year, and leads the all-time series 64-4.

On Wednesday, the Falcons will be back on the road for a 5:30 encounter at Southern New Hampshire.