SMU Volleyball Announces 2011 Schedule

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

SMU Volleyball Announces 2011 Schedule
Mustangs face seven 2010 NCAA Tournament teams

July 12, 2011

DALLAS (SMU) - SMU today announced its 2011 volleyball schedule, a slate that includes 13 home matches at Moody Coliseum, including a non-conference tournament on Sept. 2-3. The 2011 schedule features eight matches against seven opponents which competed in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, including six of the first 12 matches.

"We are all very excited to be playing some of the top teams in the country. Our goal has been and will continue to be winning C-USA and playing in the NCAA tournament. We feel we have put together a pre-season schedule that will give us the opportunity to accomplish those goals."

The Mustangs will open the regular season on Aug. 26-27 in Norman, Okla., at the Nike Invitational, hosted by the University of Oklahoma. SMU will face host Oklahoma on Friday night, with matches against Missouri State and Oral Roberts on Saturday. The Sooners advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual champion Penn State.

SMU will host its first home match of the season against TCU on Friday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. in the Doubletree Invitational in Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs will take on Lamar at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday before wrapping up the tournament against Alabama at 7 p.m.

Seifert and her team will then travel to Long Beach, Calif., Sept. 9-10 for the second of three non-conference road tournaments. SMU will face NCAA Tournament qualifiers in host Long Beach State and Utah State, as well as PAC-12 foe Oregon State.

The Mustangs will wrap up the non-conference schedule on Sept. 16-17 in Austin, Texas at the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational. SMU will face a pair of NCAA Tournament qualifier UTSA and national semifinalist Texas, as well as Santa Clara in the final test before opening Conference USA competition.

SMU opens the 20-match C-USA schedule with road contests at UCF on Sept. 23 and UTEP on Sept. 26, before returning home against Rice on Sept. 30 to close out the first full month of the season. The Mustangs open October at home against Houston on Oct. 2, and face defending conference champion Tulsa in Oklahoma on Oct. 5.

Tulane comes to Dallas for back-to-back matches on Oct. 8 and 9, with the first match designated as Dig Pink, an initiative to raise funds for research and awareness for breast cancer in conjunction with the Side-Out Foundation.

Three of the next four matches are on the road against Memphis, UAB and Marshall, with an Oct. 21 meeting with East Carolina at Moody Coliseum in the middle. After the road trip to Marshall on Oct. 23, UAB and Memphis will make return trips to Dallas before the Mustangs embark on a four-game road trip. SMU will play a pair of matches in Hattiesburg, Miss., against Southern Miss on Nov. 4 and 5, before going to Houston, Texas to face Houston and Rice on Nov. 11 and 13.

SMU will close out the regular season at home with three-straight matches in Moody Coliseum. UTEP and UCF come to town on Nov. 18 and 20, with a regular season finale scheduled for Nov. 26 against defending C-USA Champion Tulsa.

The Mustangs return nine letterwinners from last season's record-setting squad which posted a 25-6 record and finished second in Conference USA with a 17-3 mark. SMU also has four position starters and the libero returning, and all but one are seniors.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Sounds like it should be a fun season!

[SMUguy]

That looks like a really rough schedule.
Good luck in 2011, Ponies.

[Mitch McConnell]

I agree. I thought this would have been done with a senior roster but after checking the site, there are only 4 seniors and 5 freshmen.

Pretty ambitious. But I would think that Seifert did it because as good as their season was last year, they probably did not have the OOC resume and quality wins to get into the NCAA.

Other VB folks can speak better to that.

Good luck to them.