Marshall University Athletics
Volleyball Releases Challenging 2010 Schedule
4/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
April 26, 2010
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Marshall University volleyball head coach Mitch Jacobs recently announced the 2010 fall schedule, which will feature 15 home matches along with a new Conference USA format. Jacobs, entering his ninth season at the helm of the Thundering Herd, has put together one of the toughest schedules in recent memory with 32 matches, including 11 against competitors from the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Tournament.
During the 2010 campaign, the Herd can play six squads that finished in the NCAA top-50 RPI rankings.
The Herd will open the season on August 27 with a road trip to South Bend Ind., competing in the Notre Dame Tournament. After playing the Fighting Irish in the season opener, MU takes the court the next day against Cal Poly and Arizona. UND and the Wildcats advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2009 and finished 22nd and 29th in the RPI rankings, while Cal Poly was a 2008 participant.
"I've always believed that we will play anybody, anywhere," Jacobs said. "We are very excited to be invited to the tournament in South Bend and it will be a real test for the team early on."
MU will return home to host the Thunder Invitational Tourney on Sept. 3-4 inside the friendly confines of the Cam Henderson Center. Teams making the trek to Huntington will include Cleveland State, High Point and Hofstra. Last season, the Herd captured tournament crowns at both High Point and Hofstra, by sweeping all six matches.
"Cleveland State has been on the cusp of making the NCAA tournament the last few years, while High Point and Hofstra played us really tough a season ago," Jacobs said. "High Point is very scrappy and athletic and Hofstra has a great get after it mentality. When their service game is on, they are tough to compete against."
On Sept. 7, North Carolina A&T and Morehead State enter the Cam for a tri-match, setting the stage for a showdown with in-state rival West Virginia. A week later, the Herd will travel across the wild and wonderful to WVU in the battle of the Golden Ball. Under Jacobs, the Herd is a perfect 8-0 all-time against the Mountaineers.
"Two of our closest regional rivals are Morehead State and West Virginia and it's always fun to battle with them each year," Jacobs said. "Jaime (Gordon) has done an outstanding job at Morehead and the Battle of the Golden Ballââ'¬Â¦that rivalry speaks for itself. I look forward to the challenge of playing in Morgantown because the last two matches up there have gone five games against them."
In a final tune up before the start of a daunting C-USA slate of 20 matches, the Herd takes a trip to Missouri to take part in the Saint Louis University Tournament on Sept. 17-18. The tournament competitors include Western Kentucky, Lipscomb and the tournament-host Billikens. Both Saint Louis and Lipscomb competed in the NCAA tournament in 2009.
"All three teams will provide us with a perfect set up for the start of conference play," Jacobs said. "It will give us as a coaching staff the opportunity to see what areas we need to continue to improve upon prior to playing conference teams."
For the 2010 season, C-USA changed its format upping the regular season from 16 matches to 20 and dropping the conference tournament. The Herd will play every team in the league twice with the exception of UAB and Memphis. Last season Rice and Tulane went to the big dance as C-USA representatives.
"We've gone away from the conference tournament format because it has shown to hurt our regular season winners in three of the last five years," Jacobs said. "Only Marshall and Tulane have won the league and the tournament since our joining of Conference USA. C-USA is a top-seven RPI league and yet we keep giving the NCAA committee a reason to eliminate one or two of our top four teams because they get upset in the conference tournament, which is going to happen when you have a deep league."
"Our league coaches believe the entire body of work should be looked at by the NCAA committee, not just the conference tournament," Jacobs said. "As a conference we felt that we deserve two to four teams a season and by not having a tournament it would enhance more conference teams to make the NCAA tourney."
The Herd opens conference play with a two-game series against the UCF Knights on Sept. 23 and 24. Other home league matches include UAB (Oct. 3), Tulsa (Oct. 15), SMU (Oct. 17), Houston (Oct. 29), Rice (Oct. 31), Tulane (Nov. 19), Southern Miss (Nov. 21) and ECU (Nov. 27).
