UC Irvine Women's Volleyball Announces 2011 Schedule
IRVINE, Calif. --- Paula Weishoff’s UC Irvine women’s volleyball team will face eight 2010 NCAA Tournament qualifying teams in the 2011 campaign.
Playing their first nine matches on the road, the Anteaters open the calendar at the Aztec Invitational (Aug. 26-27) against host San Diego State. The team then takes on Nevada from the Western Athletic Conference and Portland from the Big Sky Conference.
UCI then travels to Delaware to compete in the Delaware Invitational (Sept. 2-3). The Anteaters meet the Blue Hens, who advanced to the NCAA post-season last year and then take on Northern Iowa. UCI then faces its first NCAA Tournament team, Florida State, to conclude action in Newark.
Road play continues for UCI at the Comcast/Sheraton Lobo Invitational (Sept. 9-10) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Anteaters take on the Lobos, also a post-season qualifying team, before meeting the University of Montreal for the first time. The team wraps up tournament play against Portland State, which faced future Big West member Hawai’i in the NCAA first round last year.
UCI welcomes a pair of former Big West members at the UC Irvine Active Ankle Challenge to open the home portion of the schedule. The Anteaters are slated to entertain Utah State (Sept. 16), which reached the NCAA first round last season and Idaho (Sept. 17).
Weishoff’s Anteaters then travel to Pacific and UC Davis (Sept. 23-24) to open Big West Conference play before breaking for a non-conference match against San Diego, which advanced to the NCAA second-round in 2010.
Long Beach State, which fell to San Diego in the opening round of post-season play, travels to the Bren Center (Oct. 4) for a mid-week contest and the Anteaters continue the three-match homestand against Cal Poly (Oct. 7) and UC Santa Barbara (Oct. 8).
Following a pair of road trips to UC Riverside (Oct. 13) and Cal State Northridge (Oct. 15), UCI returns for four straight home games. The team hosts UC Davis and Pacific (Oct. 21-22) and takes on Seattle University in a non-conference match before facing Cal State Fullerton (Nov. 1), which reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time last year.
The Anteaters travel to UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly (Nov. 4-5) before hosting UC Riverside (Nov. 9) and Cal State Northridge (Nov. 11) in the final Big West home matches.
UCI closes out conference play at Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State (Nov. 18-19) and will wrap up the regular season against Central Michigan (Nov. 26) over the Thanksgiving weekend at Crawford Court.
Weishoff is in her third season at the helm of the Anteater squad and will continue to serve as an assistant to Hugh McCutcheon on the U.S Women’s Indoor Volleyball National Team. In his third season is assistant coach Ben Bodipo-Memba and joining the staff in his first season is assistant coach Eric Perrine.
