University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Announce 2011 Volleyball Schedule
07.08.2011 | Women's Volleyball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Three in-season tournaments to open the season plus a home match with mountain rival Western Carolina highlights the 2011 UNC Asheville volleyball schedule. The schedule was released today by first-year Asheville head coach Frederico Santos.
"We have a challenging schedule ahead of us," stated Santos. "The tournaments that we will participate in are full of good teams that will challenge us right away. However, this schedule will prepare us for the rigors of the Big South Conference.
"The Big South Conference looks to be very balanced this season from top to bottom," added Santos. "There will be no automatic wins by just showing up. We're going to have to be ready to play in every match this season."
The Bulldogs will open the Frederico Santos-era in Birmingham, Ala. when they take part in the UAB/Samford Invitational (Aug. 26-27) that will be held at Samford University. Asheville will face Troy, Samford and UAB in the tourney.
The next weekend (Sept. 2-3) has the Bulldogs competing in the Gamecock Invitational at the University of South Carolina. Asheville has four matches scheduled in the tourney as it will battle Elon and Davidson College the first day and Gardner-Webb and South Carolina the following day.
Santos' club final regular-season tournament takes place the following weekend in Chattanooga, Tenn. as Asheville competes in the County Inn & Suites Invitational the weekend of Sept. 9-10. The Bulldogs will take on ETSU, Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga in the four-team tourney.
The Bulldogs home opener will be against mountain rival Western Carolina on Sept. 13 at Justice Center. A non-conference battle at North Carolina Central (Sept. 20) is followed by the Big South Conference opener three days later (Sept. 23) at home against Gardner-Webb.
The rest of the season will be Big South Conference matches. Asheville plays at Liberty (Sept. 30) and Radford (Oct. 1) before coming home to entertain Presbyterian College (Oct. 7) and Winthrop (Oct. 8).
The Bulldogs will finish the season at home with two matches. Asheville hosts Radford (Nov. 11) and Liberty (Nov. 12).
The Big South Conference Tournament will be held at Charleston Southern the weekend of Nov. 17-20.
Asheville went 19-12 last season and finished in third place in the Big South Conference with an 11-5 league mark. The Bulldogs return four starters and eight letterwinners from last year's club.