State Sets 2009 Volleyball Schedule
? 2009 Mississippi State Volleyball Schedule
STARKVILLE, Miss. - A pair of early-season home tournaments and a challenging 20-match Southeastern Conference slate highlight Mississippi State’s volleyball schedule for 2009 announced this week by Bulldog volleyball coach Jenny Hazelwood.
State opens its 35th season of volleyball this fall hosting Jackson State, McNeese State and Arkansas-Little Rock August 28-29 in the MSU Maroon Classic and closes out its regular season non-conference schedule Sept. 11-12 entertaining Arkansas State, Northwestern State and Eastern Michigan in the MSU Bulldog Invitational.
All 17 home matches, including a 10-match SEC schedule, will be contested at the Newell-Grissom Building.
State also makes a program-first visit to Springfield, Mo., for weekend competition in the five-team Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational hosted by Missouri State. The Bulldogs will take on Stephen F. Austin, UC-Davis, Memphis, and host Missouri State September 4-5 in the two-day event.
In its lone midweek non-conference home competition of the campaign, MSU squares off Tuesday, September 8 against instate rival Southern Miss 10 days ahead of a September 18 SEC season-opener against SEC West rival Auburn.
"This schedule includes good competition against a variety of different programs that will definitely prepare us for a tough SEC slate," said Hazelwood. "We had a very productive spring, and with the new talent that we are adding, we should be an exciting team to watch this fall."
All Friday match times are set for 7 p.m. while State’s Sunday matches, with the exception of a Nov. 1 match against Florida, will feature a new 2 p.m. start time. The MSU-UF match will begin at 12:30 p.m. Nine of MSU’s 10 home SEC matches will be played on weekends. The MSU-Alabama match will be played Friday, November 27 on the eve of the 2009 MSU-Ole Miss football game.
Hazelwood’s first MSU volleyball edition will feature 10 returning letter-winners and five of the six starters from last year’s 6-25 edition.