BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Nine opponents that participated in last year's NCAA tournament highlight the Western Kentucky University volleyball team's 2011 schedule, which was announced Tuesday by Lady Toppers coach Travis Hudson.
WKU is coming off its fifth trip to the NCAA tournament since 2002, having earned an at-large bid after finishing the season with a 27-9 overall mark and a 14-2 record in the Sun Belt Conference. WKU put together the program's 11th consecutive 20-win season and advanced to the championship match at the SBC tournament for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons.
"Coming off an NCAA tournament at-large bid in 2010, it makes us want to go out and schedule aggressively again to give ourselves that opportunity again if we play well," Hudson said. "I think we've certainly accomplished that."
The Lady Toppers will play 13 home matches and four regular-season tournaments next season, along with facing NCAA tournament participants Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Ohio, Lipscomb, LSU, Missouri, American, Middle Tennessee and Cincinnati.
"There is very little breathing room in this schedule," Hudson said. "When you look at the four non-conference tournaments we are playing, it's NCAA tournament qualifiers weekend after weekend, and so the challenge is going to be stiff. But we feel like we have a team coming back that will have a chance every time they step on the court, and hopefully if we get enough wins along the way, we will put ourselves in the position to be in the NCAAs again."
The Lady Toppers will open the season in Nashville, Tenn., at the two-day Belmont Invitational on Aug. 26-27, where they will take on Sacramento State, Belmont and Murray State.
WKU follows that with another two-day tournament in Lexington, Ky., on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The Sept. 2-3 tournament features Kentucky, Virginia Tech and Ohio. The Lady Toppers will stay on the road for a weekday match at Lipscomb on Sept. 6.
The Lady Toppers play their first matches at E.A Diddle Arena as part of the WKU Tournament on Sept. 9-10. WKU welcomes Xavier, Wake Forest and LSU to Bowling Green for the two-day event before hosting regional foe Tennessee State on Sept. 13.
"From top to bottom, this is the toughest tournament field we've had here in Diddle Arena," Hudson said. "All three of those teams are NCAA-caliber teams, with LSU being a perennial NCAA tournament team. To start attracting teams like that to our home tournament, I think, is a big statement to what we've become in terms of respect nationally, that those teams want to come in here and play us. We are really excited about that tournament kicking off the home portion of our schedule."
In the final tournament of the early season, WKU will travel to Washington, D.C., for the American Tournament on Sept. 16-17, where it will face host American, Missouri and Villanova.
WKU will open its Sun Belt Conference schedule at home with a pair of matches against Arkansas-Little Rock on Sept. 23 and Arkansas State on Sept. 24.
"Middle Tennessee, FIU and Western Kentucky haven't really gone anywhere over the last five, six years," Hudson said. "Year in, year out, we're all battling for conference championships and NCAA tournament bids. We expect both those teams to be outstanding again in 2011, and we think we're going to put a pretty good team out there on the court as well."
The Lady Toppers then travel to take on FIU in Miami on Sept. 30 and Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Fla., on Oct. 1.
The team returns to E.A. Diddle Arena on Oct. 4 to face 2010 SBC regular-season champion Middle Tennessee and follows with four straight home matches against Troy (Oct. 7), South Alabama (Oct. 8), FIU (Oct. 14) and FAU (Oct. 15).
WKU takes to the road for three matches beginning Oct. 18 at Cincinnati before traveling to Louisiana to face Louisiana-Lafayette on Oct. 21 and Louisiana-Monroe on Oct. 22.
The Lady Toppers host two more SBC home matches against Denver (Oct. 28) and North Texas (Oct. 29).
WKU wraps up the regular season with three consecutive away matches starting at South Alabama on Nov. 4. The Lady Toppers will play at Troy on Nov. 5 and close the season at Middle Tennessee on Nov. 11.
The Sun Belt Conference volleyball tournament runs Nov. 17-19 at FIU's U.S. Century Bank Arena in Miami.
