BATON ROUGE, La. – Highlighted by 14 games inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, including a home tournament in the second week of the season and nine games against SEC competition, the LSU volleyball team released its 2016 schedule today as the season kicks off Friday, Aug. 26.
The 2016 Tigers will feature many familiar faces with its core of upperclassmen returning to the squad for the new season, while also including a nationally-ranked recruiting class to add to the team’s overall depth against a challenging non-conference schedule and 18-game conference slate.
“Our schedule will allow our young team to develop through the pre-conference schedule, with a good balance of teams from many different conferences,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We will be challenged each weekend, which is vital to our preparation for the SEC season. Our team is excited about those challenges and is ready to compete.”
LSU opens the year and the non-conference portion of the schedule in Durham, North Carolina, in late August, participating in a tournament at Duke University where the team will take on EKU, UNCG and the Blue Devils the first weekend of the season.
The very next week, LSU welcomes Connecticut, Southern Miss and Virginia to the Maravich Center for a two-day tournament September 2-3, featuring six total games over the course of the two days. LSU will play every team, beginning with UConn on Friday morning and Virginia later that night, while closing the tournament Saturday with USM.
Orlando will be the site of the final non-conference tournament for the squad, traveling to UCF for the Holiday Inn Express/UCF Classic at The Venue. LSU will face Seattle and UCF on day one of the event, closing the tournament the next day against Florida Atlantic.
Home dates against Baylor and Florida State on September 14 and 18, respectively, will be the final pre-conference tune-ups for LSU in mid-September, as the Tigers are taking on both teams in the same season for the first time since 2014.
NEWS: LSU releases 2016 schedule https://t.co/IkngtjXbP6 pic.twitter.com/WoNBKGgjrX
— LSU Volleyball (@lsuvolleyball) July 14, 2016
Southeastern Conference play opens Friday, September 23 on the road at Auburn for LSU, as this season the Tigers will hit Ole Miss, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and reigning SEC champs Texas A&M as well this season.
The SEC home opener for the team is a rivalry match against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday, September 25. It opens a stretch of three consecutive home matches for the group, welcoming Texas A&M and Missouri. Two weeks later LSU will play host to both Florida and South Carolina over the course of three days.
The Tigers will have another set three home matches when hosting Ole Miss, with a week off before returning to the court to host Georgia and Mississippi State. The final contest of the season will be the Saturday of Thanksgiving week with a match against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Maravich Center.
Every LSU volleyball home game is free and open to the general public, where fans will be able to pick up team posters, schedule cards and other promotional items during the match, as at the end of every match is an autograph session with the entire team.
The 2016 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship begins on Thursday, December 1, with the first two rounds of play at campus sites featuring 64 total teams. The following week, the regional round will also be at campus sites of the highest remaining tournament seeds. The national semifinals and finals will take place at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger volleyball, visit www.lsusports.net/volleyball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsuvolleyball along with @lsuvolleyball and @lsucoachfran on Twitter and @lsuvb on Instagram.