DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University volleyball team's 2016 schedule features 10 home matches as part of a 32-match slate, third-year head coach Darrin McBroom announced June 15. The Bulldogs will also play in four tournaments to open the season prior to the always challenging Missouri Valley Conference schedule.
The Bulldogs open the season on Aug. 26 with the first of four matches in Boca Raton, Fla., as part of a tournament hosted by Florida Atlantic University. In addition to the host, the Bulldogs will face Northeastern, North Florida and Bethune-Cookman to open the season. FAU and North Florida amassed a combined record of 39-22 last season.
"I am really looking forward to this season and to the schedule that lies ahead," McBroom said. "We are thrilled to begin our season in Boca Raton, Fla., at the Florida Atlantic tournament. It will be nice for our team to get out of the Midwest and play some teams that we don't typically see. The tournament also takes place the weekend before our classes start so that our student-athletes will not miss class for this experience against strong competition."
Following the season-opening tournament in Florida, the Bulldogs return to the Knapp Center for a Aug. 30 contest against South Dakota State before taking to the road for their next 11 matches. That challenging slate begins on Sept. 2-3 with a tournament at Omaha against Ball State, UMKC and homestanding Omaha. The following weekend, the team travels to Charleston, Ill., to take on host Eastern Illinois, Louisiana Tech and Bowling Green on Sept. 9-10.
The team wraps up non-conference play with a tournament at Western Illinois in Macomb, Ill., Sept. 16-17. There the Bulldogs will face the host, Southeast Missouri State and Weber State. Last season, the Bulldogs won four-straight matches at the same event to open the 2015 season with a tournament title.
"I think our schedule will provide a good balance for us in the opening weekends," McBroom added. "We will be playing a lot of teams that are very similar to us in development and a few that are a bit ahead of us. This will give us the challenge we need to prepare for conference play and still give us the ability to focus on working on our side of the net."
The traditional round-robin MVC season begins on the road for the Bulldogs with matches at Evansville and NCAA Tournament participant SIU on Sept. 23-24, respectively, followed by a four-match homestand starting on Sept. 30 against defending MVC Champion Wichita State and NCAA Tournament qualifier Missouri State (Oct. 1). The homestand continues against Illinois State (Oct. 3) and NCAA Tournament qualifier UNI (Oct. 8) to complete a grueling first third of the MVC season.
"As always I expect conference play to be as difficult as ever," McBroom said. "Last year the MVC qualified four teams for the NCAA tournament which is almost half of our conference, to tie the SEC and West Coast Conference for most teams in the field. Additionally, our conference had five teams ranked in the top 75 RPI and seven in the top 150. I think we will be improved this year, but I also expect our conference to be just as tough, if not better than last year."
The first half of MVC play concludes with matches at Loyola (Oct. 14) and Bradley (Oct.) before returning home to face SIU (Oct. 21) and Evansville (Oct. 22). The second-half of the Bulldogs' MVC season includes home matches against Indiana State (Oct. 31), Bradley (Nov. 11) and Loyola (Nov. 12) before closing the 18-game conference season at Indiana State (Nov. 18) and Illinois State (Nov. 19). The MVC Championship follows Nov. 24-26 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
The Bulldogs will face this schedule with a roster that includes nine returning, experienced players including last season's top three leaders in kills in Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa), Makena Schoene (Seattle, Wash.) and Grace Schofield (Mundelein, Ill.). During the offseason, the program added four talented newcomers to that mix.
