BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The LSU women's basketball team is gearing up for a preseason trip to Canada for exhibition games.

NCAA rules let teams make such trips out of the United States every four years. They're allowed to practice up to 10 days before those trips.

The Lady Tigers will practice twice a day through August 28. After a morning workout on Friday, they leave for Vancouver. They'll play a doubleheader Saturday against Trinity Western University and the University of British Columbia -- defending champions of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Conference.

On Sunday, they play Simon Frasier University. They return Monday. Since that's Labor Day, the players won't miss any classes.

Coach Van Chancellor says the trip will give the team a chance to learn and play before practice officially begins on October 17.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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