Ball State University Athletics
Women?s Volleyball Releases 2011 Schedule
June 09, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - Highlighted by pre-conference tournaments at Valparaiso, Purdue and Michigan State, the Ball State women's volleyball team released its 2011 schedule which sees the season open Friday, Aug. 26, with the Cardinals hosting Loyola-Chicago in the first match of the three-day Ball State Active Ankle Challenge.
Overall, the Cardinals' 2011 schedule features 19 matches versus teams ranked in the top 131 (of 328 teams) in the final 2010 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball RPI rankings, including all five of BSU's fellow Mid-American Conference West Division rivals.
"We wanted to step our schedule up this year because we have a team that is very experienced," said Ball State head coach Steve Shondell. "We return nearly our entire offense from last year and we felt we needed to play a tough schedule this year to prepare ourselves for what is going to be an extremely tough MAC season."
Joining the Cardinals and the Ramblers in the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge will be in-state rival IPFW, which is the first of five Indiana programs BSU will face during the season. Following a mid-week contest at IUPUI (Aug. 30), BSU travels to Valparaiso for the Marriott Volley Brawl (Sept. 2-3) where it will take on Evansville, the host Crusaders, Murray State and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi.
Perhaps the biggest non-conference match will come the following weekend, when the Cardinals travel to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Purdue Active Ankle Challenge (Sept. 9-10). After matches with Western Carolina and Jacksonville State, the Cardinals will take on 2010 NCAA Tournament quarterfinal participant Purdue, which finished the season ranked 11th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll. Purdue is also coached by Shondell's brothers, head coach Dave Shondell and assistant coach John Shondell.
Ball State concludes its pre-conference slate Sept. 16-17, with a trip to East Lansing, Mich., for the Spartan Invitational where it will battle Michigan State, 2010 NCAA Tournament participant Sacred Heart and Virginia Commonwealth.
The Cardinals open their 16-match league slate Thursday, Sept. 22, by hosting MAC West Division rival Toledo before traveling to East Division foe Akron (Sept. 24). The Cardinals return home for matches versus Northern Illinois (Sept. 30) and Western Michigan (Oct. 1), before ending its first tour through the MAC West with road matches at Central Michigan (Oct. 7) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 8).
Ball State travels to three-time defending MAC Tournament Champion and 2010 NCAA Tournament second round participant Ohio for an Oct. 14 showdown, before visiting Kent State the next day. BSU goes on to host Miami (Oct. 21), Bowling Green (Oct. 22) and Buffalo (Oct. 29), surrounding an Oct. 27 trip to Toledo.
The Cardinals wrap-up league play with four straight matches against divisional opponents, ending the MAC regular season Saturday, Nov. 12, with a home match versus Central Michigan. A reformatted and relocated 2011 MAC Tournament runs Nov. 18-20 at SPIRE, part of the GaREAT family, located in Geneva, Ohio. This year, the top eight teams advance to the tournament, eliminating the first round campus matches, with the winner of the tournament earning the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinals will then conclude the 2011 regular season Saturday, Nov. 26, with a non-conference home match versus St. Louis.
The 31st Annual NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship begins Thursday, Dec. 1, at campus sites, and concludes with the championships match Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
