Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Volleyball Unveils 2016 Schedule
6/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
2016 Schedule | Printable Schedule
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Marshall volleyball announced its 2016 schedule Tuesday, including four tournaments and 15 non-conference opponents to go along with the 14-game Conference USA season.
The Thundering Herd starts its season with the Hoosier Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., facing Evansville, Northern Kentucky and Indiana on Aug. 26-27. Marshall then returns to the Cam Henderson Center to begin its home schedule on Aug. 30 against regional rival Ohio.
Marshall's second tournament of the season will be the West Virginia Capitol Classic, held at the Charleston Civic Center on Sept. 2-3. The Herd will open play against Morehead State and West Virginia on Friday and Indiana State on Saturday.
The Herd then hits the road for eight straight matches to close out non-conference action, highlighted by two tournaments. Marshall begins its road swing at Bowling Green (Sept. 7) before heading to the Toledo Rocket Invite to face IPFW, Toledo and Saint Francis (Pa.) on Sept. 9-10. The Thundering Herd then heads south to the Sunshine State to play Stetson (Sept. 14) and to compete in the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla. Marshall will play against Florida A&M on Sept. 16, while facing Jacksonville and Florida on Sept. 17. Florida finished the 2015 season ranked No. 16 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll and had No. 5 RPI.
"I feel that we were able to put together a quality schedule that will have us ready for conference season," Herd coach Mitch Jacobs said. "One highlight for sure will be to play in Gainesville and bring Kayla and Jac'cara home to get to play in front of family.
"It's a little disappointing that we weren't able to host more in the preseason, however, we were able to work together with West Virginia to put together a very good tournament in Charleston. It's been a few years since we have played the Mountaineers in Charleston, but when we did we always had great turnouts. After this one year tourney we will go back to each other's home courts for the following two years."
In C-USA play, Marshall will host Charlotte (Sept. 23), Middle Tennessee (Sept. 25), FIU (Oct. 7), UTSA (Oct. 9), WKU (Oct. 28), Florida Atlantic (Oct. 30) and UTEP (Nov. 10). WKU is the reigning Conference USA regular season and tournament champion. The Thundering Herd will visit Southern Miss (Sept. 30), Rice (Oct. 14), Louisiana Tech (Oct. 16), FIU (Oct. 21), North Texas (Nov. 4), Charlotte (Nov. 6) and UAB (Nov. 12).
Conference USA has announced the 2016 Championship will be hosted by Rice in Houston, from Nov. 18-20.
