Auburn Volleyball Team Announces 2010 Fall Schedule
and head coach Wade Benson announced the upcoming 2010 fall schedule
Tuesday. Highlighting the schedule will be matches against eight teams
that participated in the 2009 NCAA tournament, as well as three
tournaments and 14 home matches.
“Our overall strength of schedule this upcoming season is very
high,” head coach Wade Benson said. “We’re facing handful of
NCAA tournament participants in the preseason and the SEC will be much
stronger top to bottom.”
The eight NCAA participants Auburn will face include: Middle Tennessee,
Duke, Cincinnati, College of Charleston, LSU, Tennessee, Kentucky and
Florida.
Auburn opens the 2010 season at home in the Student Activities Center,
playing host to the two-day War Eagle Invitational on August 27-28. The
team will face Georgia Southern, Troy, Tennessee State and
Bethune-Cookman.
The Tigers follow with another two-day tournament in Murfreesboro,
Tenn., on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. The September
4-5 tournament features Middle Tennessee, Auburn, Duke and Southern
Miss. The Tigers stick to the road for a weekday match at Troy on Sept.
7.
In the final tournament of the early season, Auburn will travel to
Charleston, S.C., for the College of Charleston Tournament, Sept. 10-11.
The Tigers will face host College of Charleston, Oregon State and
Cincinnati.
Auburn opens its SEC schedule on the road as the team travels to 2009
SEC regular season champion LSU on Sept. 17 and Arkansas on Sept. 19.
The team returns to the Student Activities Center on Sept. 24 to face
the SEC East champion Kentucky and then follows with a match-up against
Tennessee on Sept. 26.
The Tigers host three more SEC home matches against Mississippi State
(Oct. 1), in-state rival Alabama (Oct. 3) and Georgia (Oct. 6). Auburn
then takes to the road for matches at Ole Miss (Oct. 8), Florida (Oct.
15) and South Carolina (Oct. 17).
The second half of SEC play begins the following week as the Tigers
host Arkansas (Oct. 22) and LSU (Oct. 24) and hit the road to face
Tennessee (Oct. 29) and Kentucky (Oct. 31). Three matches with South
Carolina (Nov. 5), Florida (Nov. 7) and Ole Miss (14) closes out
Auburn’s home schedule.
Auburn wraps up the regular season with three-straight away matches
starting at Alabama on Nov. 19. The Tigers are at Mississippi State on
Nov. 21 and close out the season at Georgia on Nov. 22.
“We’re really looking forward on improving our finish in the SEC
West last season,” Benson said. “Matches to highlight for us are the
ones at LSU and Arkansas. These will be the teams to beat in the West
and we’re anxious for the challenge.”
The Tigers are coming off one of the team’s most successful seasons
in 10 years, finishing with a 16-15 overall mark and an 8-12 record in
the Southeastern Conference. Auburn concluded the year second in the SEC
West and tied for fifth overall in the league. The 16 overall wins and
eight SEC victories were the most the team has had since 1999.
