BATON ROUGE – Fresh off its first SEC championship since 1991, the LSU volleyball team released its 2010 schedule Friday that features nine matches against NCAA Tournament teams.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to defend our SEC title,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Our team has worked extremely hard and improved each day during the spring season to prepare us for this challenge. We still have a lot of work ahead us, but it will be exciting to see our young team develop.”
The Tigers start the season with a pair of tournaments in the Lone Star state hosted by Texas A&M and TCU. LSU faces Pacific (Aug. 27) and Siena (Aug. 27) along with a NCAA Second Round rematch versus Texas A&M (Aug. 28) on opening weekend before taking on NCAA participant TCU (Sept. 3), Central Arkansas (Sept. 3) and Alcorn State (Sept. 4) in Fort Worth.
Before entering SEC action, LSU welcomes North Carolina (Sept. 10), New Mexico State (Sept. 11) and NCAA participant Rice (Sept. 11) to the Maravich Center for the Tiger Classic.
For the fifth consecutive season, the five-time defending SEC Western Division champions will play a home-and-home series with each SEC squad in lieu of a conference tournament. The Tigers square off with Auburn (Sept. 17) and Georgia (Sept. 19) on the league’s first weekend.
NCAA Sweet 16 participant Kentucky (Oct. 8) visits the PMAC as part of three-match home stand that features NCAA participant Tennessee (Oct. 10) and Arkansas (Oct. 13). The Tigers also play host to Mississippi State (Oct. 29), Alabama (Oct. 31) and Ole Miss (Nov. 7) before wrapping up the home slate with South Carolina (Nov. 19) and NCAA Sweet 16 participant Florida (Nov. 21).
“The SEC continues to be a league on the rise in volleyball after placing four teams in the NCAA’s last season,” Flory said. “Each team has talented players, and our team will be in for a challenge every time we step on the court.”
Under Flory, LSU is one of only 20 programs in the nation to appear in the last five NCAA Tournaments. For all of the latest information on Tiger volleyball, log on to http://www.lsusports.net/volleyball or follow the program’s twitter page at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball.