The Northwestern women’s basketball head coach Beth Combs announced on Thursday that former Syracuse guard Jennifer Eckhart will transfer to NU for the winter quarter in 2007.

Eckhart, a native of Libertyville, Ill., averaged 9.9 points per game and 2.89 assists per game for Syracuse her freshman year. She was one of two players on the Orangemen roster that started every game and played the most minutes of any player on the team last season.

She left Carmel High School as the school’s all-time leading scoring and assists leader. She was named first team All-State by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association her senior year.

Eckhart averaged 16.4 points and 7.8 assists per game her senior year.

Due to NCAA rules, Eckhart will sit out this season because of the transfer and will play for the Wildcats starting next season.

Meanwhile, the women’s basketball team plays an exhibition game Friday at 7 p.m. against the Chicago Challengers at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The Challengers are a team of former collegiate student-athletes who play an exhibition schedule against college teams, typically in and around Chicago.

The Cats said they are looking forward to the preseason game as an opportunity to get some game experience and become more comfortable with their offensive and defensive sets.

“We’re treating it like a game,” Combs said. “But what’s most important to me is that we take care of our offense, take care of our defense. It’s really going to give us an opportunity to kind of look at our different combinations and see really who works well together out there.”

Combs said that she will try to get all of the players time on the floor Friday night to help the team prepare for its regular season opener Nov. 10 against Valparaiso.