PEORIA, Ill. -- First-year Bradley volleyball head coach Jenny Maurer will make her debut as the Braves head coach at home Aug. 26 against Nebraska-Omaha and the squad will make its first trip to the state of South Carolina since 1992 to help highlight the 2011 Bradley volleyball schedule which was announced Thursday.
Bradley has 13 home matches on the slate this fall and kicks off the season with a pair of matches against NCAA Division I provisional member Nebraska-Omaha, which will begin competition in the Summit League in 2012-13. The Braves and Mavericks will face off Aug. 26 & 27 at Renaissance Coliseum as part of the CEFCU Classic, which also includes a match against Illinois-Chicago (Aug. 27).
The Braves travel to Akron, Ohio, Labor Day weekend for the Akron Invitational, where BU will square off against Canisius, St. Francis (Pa.) and tournament-host Akron (Sept. 2 & 3). Bradley will be playing both Canisius and St. Francis for the first time while the match against Akron will be the first meeting with the Zips since 1999.
The final weekend before Missouri Valley Conference play features the team's first trip to South Carolina since taking part in the 1992 Lady Tiger Classic in Clemson, S.C., with Bradley playing in the Coastal Carolina Invitational in Conway, S.C. The Braves open the tournament Friday, Sept. 9 against Iona and will also face host Coastal Carolina (Sept. 9) and Gardner-Webb (Sept. 10). Iona finished the 2010 campaign with a 20-11 record and the Gaels were second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last year.
Evansville will visit Renaissance Coliseum Sept. 16 for the Missouri Valley Conference opener and Bradley will also play Southern Illinois (Sept. 17) during the opening week of league play. The Braves first conference road match is Sept. 23 at Indiana State and BU will face I-74 rival Illinois State Sept. 25 in Normal, Ill.
The first of eight matches against NCAA Tournament teams from last year is Sept. 30 when Missouri State travels to Peoria for a 7 p.m. match and Bradley will host Wichita State the next night on Oct. 1 (7 p.m.) to open a stretch of four consecutive matches against teams which played in the last year's NCAA Tournament.
A three-match road swing against teams which combined for a 74-26 record last fall is followed by a 3-match homestand. The Braves kick off the home stretch against I-74 rival Illinois State Thursday, Oct. 20 (7 p.m.) and play Indiana State on Friday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. before squaring off against Loyola-Chicago on Tuesday, Oct. 25 (7 p.m.) in the final non-conference match of the year.
Road matches at Wichita State (Oct. 28) and Missouri State (Oct. 29) fall before the final homestand of the year, which begins Nov. 4 against two-time defending regular-season MVC champion Northern Iowa. Drake makes its annual trip to Peoria for a Nov. 11 contest and the Braves' final home match of the year is slated for Saturday, Nov. 12 against Creighton, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
Bradley concludes the regular season with road tilts at Southern Illinois (Nov. 18) and Evansville (Nov. 19). The six-team State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament is scheduled for Nov. 24-26 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
The Braves return 11 of 15 letterwinners, including five starters from last year's squad which posted the team's best conference record since 2006.
