The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Announce 2009 Volleyball Schedule
5/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
May 12, 2009
Complete 2009 UAB Volleyball Schedule
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Coming off a second NCAA tournament appearance in the past three years, the UAB volleyball program has announced its 32-match schedule for the upcoming 2009 season.
The schedule includes a 16-match Conference USA slate and contests against five 2008 NCAA tournament teams -- Tulane, Rice, Middle Tennessee, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Alabama A&M.
"We tried to create the most challenging schedule we could with an emphasis on playing teams in our region," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "It's difficult to project an opponent's RPI because you have to predict what they will do this year, not look at what they did last year.
"But we feel like we have a schedule that will prepare our young team and get our players ready for the tough competition of Conference USA."
The Blazers will play the first four weekends of the season on the road, starting Aug. 28-29 at Auburn in a tournament that features Alabama A&M and the host Tigers of the SEC. The following weekend, UAB will face a second SEC opponent with a trip to Ole Miss for another tournament Sept. 4-5. The Ole Miss event also features matches against Alcorn State, Akron and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Sandwiched between those two tournaments is the Blazers' home opener Sept. 1 against Jacksonville State at Bartow Arena. The match is the first of 10 home contests for UAB in 2009.
The Blazers' early-season schedule also features a tournament Sept. 11-12 at Southern Illinois (featuring matches against Murray State, Valparaiso and Southern Illinois) and one Sept. 18-19 at Memphis (featuring contests with UALR, New Orleans and Samford).
The Memphis tournament comes on the heels of UAB's conference opener with the Tigers on Sept. 17 in Memphis. The team then returns to Birmingham and, after a home match Sept. 22 against Middle Tennessee, UAB gets into the heart of league play with 15 of its final 17 contests against conference opponents.
In total, seven of UAB's Conference USA matches will be played at home, while nine will be played on the road. The league schedule is highlighted by home matches Sept. 25 and Sept. 27 against Houston and Rice, two of the top four teams in last year's standings, and a road contest Oct. 23 at defending champion Tulane.
A season ago, Conference USA was as strong as it has been recently. The league sent three teams to the NCAA tournament, including UAB, which earned an at-large spot for the first time in program history. Rice also received an at-large berth, and Tulane advanced automatically as the winner of the Conference USA Championship.
The Blazers' 2009 schedule builds toward this year's C-USA Championship, slated for Nov. 19-22 and hosted by Rice in Houston. UAB has advanced to the tournament's championship match in each of the past three seasons.
