The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Announce 2005 Volleyball Schedule
6/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
June 20, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB volleyball team has released its 2005 schedule, head coach Melinda Claiborne announced on Monday. The Blazers will play a total of 28 regular season matches, including three tournaments during September.
After an exhibition match at home against Auburn on Aug. 26, UAB heads to Mobile, Ala. for the South Alabama Tournament. from Sept. 1-3. There, the Blazers will take on the host Jaguars in addition to Stetson, Murray State and Youngstown State.
The Blazers then take on Birmingham rival Samford before hosting Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Monroe, Tennessee State and SE Louisiana at the UAB Invitational on Sept. 9 and 10.
The next weekend, UAB travels to Richmond, Ky. where it will take part in the Eastern Kentucky Tournament along with UNC-Greensboro and the host Colonels.
The Blazers then open Conference USA play on Sept. 23 at Rice which is one of six new C-USA members the Blazers will face in 2005. UAB will be facing three of those squads for the first time in school history. Marshall, SMU and Tulsa will get together with the Blazers for the first time ever on the volleyball court in 2005.
UAB takes on Central Florida, Southern Miss, Memphis, Marshall and East Carolina two times this season, while playing one match each against Rice, Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane and UTEP.
"We have a pretty young team, so the pre-season tournaments should help prepare us for conference play," said Claiborne. "The Eastern Kentucky match will be the toughest for us until our first conference contest against Rice. Hopefully by then, we will be hitting it hard and those tough early matches will help give us experience as we go through the season. Our goals this season are to be competitive and finish in the top half of the C-USA standings."
