April 26, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State head volleyball coach Melissa Myers released the Redbirds' 2011 schedule Tuesday. The Redbirds are set to play 30 matches in the 2011 regular season, including three tournaments and 18 Missouri Valley Conference matches.
Illinois State will play three non-conference tournaments, including two in the Mountain time zone. The Redbirds opens the season at the Wolverine Invitational Tournament in Ogden, Utah against three teams they have never played before. The Redbirds open the tournament with host Utah Valley (Aug. 26) and then face Northern Arizona and Cal State Bakersfield (Aug. 27).
The Redbirds will compete in the inaugural Skyhawk Invitational (Sept. 2-3) in Martin, Tenn., with Stephen F. Austin, Alabama-Birmingham and the host UT Martin. The following weekend, ISU heads to Laramie, Wyo., for the UniWyo Cowgirl Classic (Sept. 9-10) to take on Wyoming, Idaho State and Georgia State. Both tournaments have ISU playing two games on Friday and one on Saturday.
The non-conference schedule also includes three midweek home matches. ISU takes to the court at Redbird Arena for the first time of the year against SIU Edwardsville (Aug. 30) and also hosts Western Illinois (Sept. 7) and Loyola-Chicago (Sept. 13).
After the 12 non-conference matches, Missouri Valley Conference play begins on the road for the fifth-straight season with matches at Missouri State (Sept. 16) and Wichita State (Sept. 17). The Valley home schedule begins with defending champion Northern Iowa (Sept. 23) and Bradley (Sept. 25). Road matches at Creighton (Sept. 30) and Drake (Oct. 1) are followed by home dates with Evansville (Oct. 7), Southern Illinois (Oct. 8) and Indiana State (Oct. 13) to close out the first half of the conference schedule.
Five of the matches in the second half of the conference schedule are on the road, at Bradley (Oct. 20), at Northern Iowa (Oct. 21), at Southern Illinois (Nov. 4), at Evansville (Nov. 5) and at Indiana State (Nov. 12). The Redbirds host Drake (Oct. 28) and Creighton (Oct. 29) before wrapping up the regular season at home against Wichita State (Nov. 18) and Missouri State (Nov. 19).
The 2011 State Farm MVC Volleyball Tournament will be Nov. 24-26 at a school yet to be determined.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
