WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State head volleyball coach Chris Lamb announced today the 2011 volleyball schedule, which includes 11 home matches and three early season tournaments. The Shockers will face nine teams in 2011 that participated in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
“This year’s schedule will be extremely difficult as we open the season in Hawaii with three very good teams and then go to tournaments at Louisville and Colorado State to face teams that were in the NCAA Tourney last season,” Lamb said. “We are excited that we could get home non-conference matches against Oklahoma and Nebraska-Omaha and we will also have the Valley schedule which features three postseason teams.”
The Shockers will open the season Aug. 26-28 at the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii. WSU will face two 2010 NCAA Tournament teams in Arizona and Hawaii and will also play San Francisco in the tourney.
WSU then travels to Louisville, Ky., for the Crowne Plaza Cardinal Classic Sept. 2-4. The Shockers open the tournament with Eastern Illinois before playing 2010 NCAA Tournament participants Louisville and Mississippi.
The Shockers round out tournament play with the Rams Volleyball Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., Sept. 9-10. WSU will face Colorado State, a 2010 NCAA Tourney team, and Northern Colorado in the tournament before finishing with an exhibition match against Nova KBM Maribor.
WSU will then open the home portion of its schedule on Sept. 14 by hosting 2010 NCAA Tournament participant Oklahoma in Charles Koch Arena. The Shockers will play five-straight matches at home beginning with the OU match.
The Shockers conference season gets underway on Sept. 16 in Wichita against Indiana State. WSU will host Illinois State on Sept. 17 and then play the last non-conference match of the season on Sept. 20 against Nebraska-Omaha inside Charles Koch Arena.
The final match of the home stand is on Sept. 23 against 2010 NCAA Tourney participant Missouri State. The Shockers travel to Springfield, Mo., to play the Bears again on Oct. 21.
The other two 2010 NCAA Tourney teams on WSU’s schedule include UNI, who the Shockers play on the road on Sept. 30 and at home on Oct. 29, and Creighton, who the Shockers host on Oct. 8 and travel to on Nov. 4.
In 2010, WSU finished fourth in the Shocker record books in total attendance (30,014) and average attendance (2,501) and finished 10th nationally in average attendance.
