The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced its 2009-10 women’s basketball schedule, and as usual it has plenty of highlights.

The schedule will include 40 televised games including key in-conference matchups as well as some contests which will certainly match Top 10 teams.

The three Triangle teams all open their schedules on Nov. 13.

That night N.C. State will host Florida International – there doesn’t seem to be any controversy with that FIU game – at Reynolds Coliseum in the first regular-season game for new coach Kellie Harper. That will be the nightcap of the first round of the Wolfpack’s season opening tournament which also includes Vermont and Western Michigan.

Also on Nov. 13 UNC will entertain the College of Charleston in what is scheduled to be the first regular-season game in the newly remodeled Carmichael Auditorium, while Duke will be on the road at Houston Baptist. Duke’s first regular-season home game will be Nov. 19 against Georgia Southern.

There is one other interesting ACC opener for Triangle fans, as N.C. Central will visit Maryland on Nov. 14. That is one of five ACC teams the independent Eagles will play, including trips to Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and a March 14 regular-season finale at UNC after the Tar Heels have already played in the ACC Tournament.

Televised schedule highlights include UNC’s Jan. 9 visit to defending national champion Connecticut in a game to be shown on CBS, Connecticut at Duke on Jan. 18 on ESPN2, UNC at Duke on Feb. 8 (ESPN2), Miami at N.C. State on Feb. 14 for “Pink Frenzy” (ESPN2), Duke at Maryland on Jan. 24 on Fox Sports Net (FSN), UNC at N.C. State on Jan. 25(FSN), and Duke at UNC on Feb. 28 (FSN).

Duke will host N.C. Central on Dec. 28 and N.C. State on Feb. 11

The Triangle teams’ games in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge will all be on Dec. 3, with Ohio State at Duke, Wisconsin at N.C. State and UNC at Michigan State.

The ACC Tournament will be held at Greensboro Coliseum from March 4-7, and Duke has been selected as a site for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament March 20 and 22.