William and Mary Releases 2009 Volleyball Schedule

Tribe Invitational to Open Season August 28-29

06/03/09 11:18AM

WILLIAMSBURG - Head coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton '91 released the 2009 William and Mary volleyball schedule today, a 28-match slate leading up to the Colonial Athletic Association and NCAA Tournaments in late November. The Tribe will open the year with four invitational tournaments before beginning conference play on September 26, and will play a total of 11 matches in Kaplan Arena during the regular season.

Complete Schedule

"We're excited about the challenges our 2009 schedule holds," said Shelton. "The competition we will face from our non-conference opponents will put many demands on our players and prepare us for the rigors of the CAA. We will be using the first four weekends to shape and mold our line-up. With six new faces on our roster we will be trying many combinations to see which one produces the best results."

The season opens at home August 28-29 with the five-team Tribe Invitational. In addition to the host team, squads from Rider, Ohio State, North Carolina A&T, and Maryland-Eastern Shore will participate in the tournament. The Tribe will face Rider and UMES at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively, on Friday; at the same times on Saturday the Green and Gold will take on North Carolina A&T and Ohio State. Each of the four visiting sides will also play each other in round-robin, with matches beginning at 10 a.m. each day.

William and Mary heads south to Boone, North Carolina the following weekend for the Appalachian Invitational, September 4-5. The Tribe will face Appalachian State, Tennessee Tech, and North Florida in the event. Tournament play continues September 11-12 in Washington, D.C., at the Georgetown Invitational. DC-area teams Georgetown and Maryland will be opponents there, as will peninsula-foe Hampton. The final tournament of the regular season takes the Tribe to Dallas, Texas, for the SMU Challenge September 18-19. Syracuse, Texas State, and the host Mustangs will be W&M’s opponents in the tournament. The final non-conference match of the year will be against former conference foe American University, on Tuesday, October 13 in Washington, D.C.

CAA play for the Tribe will feature a much more balanced slate in terms of travel, with no home-stand or road-swing longer than two matches. Home matches will come against VCU (9/26), Georgia State (10/9), UNC Wilmington (10/10), Northeastern (10/23), Hofstra (10/24), George Mason (11/6), and James Madison on Senior Day (11/7). Road matches include JMU (10/2), GMU (10/3), VCU (10/16), Towson (10/30), Delaware (10/31), UNC Wilmington (11/13), and Georgia State (11/15).

"CAA play, once again, promises to be extremely competitive and exciting as ten teams will all be gunning for four spots at the Championships in November, " Shelton said. "It is anyone's championship at this point and we know we have the talent to be in the running."

The top four teams in the regular season standings will advance to the CAA Championships on the court of the regular-season champion, with dates to be determined somewhere between November 19-22. The first round and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be at 16 campus sites throughout the country December 3-6, leading into the Regional Rounds of 16 and eight December 11-12 at one of four national sites. The national semifinals (December 17) and the NCAA Championship match on December 19 will be held in Tampa Bay, Florida, at the St. Pete Times Forum.

William and Mary returns nine of 15 players from last year's squad that finished 19-9 and reached the CAA Tournament, including all-conference middle Ginny Bray (Cary, N.C.) and all-region outside Erin Skipper (Yorktown, Va.).