Fresno State Athletics
Volleyball Announces 2015 Schedule
6/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
FRESNO, Calif. -- Fresno State volleyball head coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell has announced the Bulldogs schedule for the 2015 season. The `Dogs will host 18 home matches this fall, including tournaments on consecutive weekends in September.
"The glaring theme to our 2015 schedule is HOME, SWEET HOME," Netherby-Sewell explained. "Less travel equals more advantages. We gained some real character on the road last season and now we move forward tougher and wiser for it. Our perspective has changed and I think this travel season will seem like a breeze. It will allow us to get back our coveted home-court advantage, recovery and class time.
"As always, we will continue great traditions like the alumnae match, Fresno Pacific battle and Dig Pink to raise Breast Cancer Awareness in the Valley."
Outside of the first two weekends of competition, which will see Fresno State head to tournaments at Western Carolina (Aug. 28-29) and Saint Mary's (Sept. 4-5), the `Dogs will host 18 of its final 27 matches of the season.
After the program's annual alumnae match on Aug. 22, the Bulldogs will play their first home match of the regular season against UC Riverside on Sept. 11 as the team opens up the Fresno State Invitational. The two-day tournament also features matches versus Cal State Fullerton, Sacramento State and Central Michigan.
Fresno State's second invitational at home will begin on Sept. 18 as the team hosts Portland and Southern Utah before facing UC Davis to close out the tournament the following day.
"The motivation behind this schedule is to boost our RPI with early wins, connect with our fans again and gain some momentum heading into MWC play," Netherby-Sewell added.
An exhibition match with Fresno Pacific on Sept. 22 will be the Bulldogs' final home contest before beginning Mountain West play.
"We have a really motivated and talented young team returning and with the addition of strong local talent and a few newcomers with the potential to make big impacts right away, and we envision an electric atmosphere in the Save Mart Center and steady momentum heading into October," Netherby-Sewell said.
"We want big crowds and we fully expect to earn big wins."
The Bulldogs open up its conference slate by hosting San Jose State on Sept. 24 before seeing their only weekend off during the season come two days later.
Fresno State will have home and road matches against Air Force, Boise State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV and Utah State. Fresno State's Mountain West schedule sees the team host five matches in October and a three-match home stretch in mid-November.
The `Dogs will see two of the top three teams from a year ago only once during the season. The Bulldogs will host Wyoming, which finished third in the MW in 2014, on senior night on November 18 before traveling to defending champion Colorado State on Nov. 21.
The Bulldogs' regular season schedule concludes with a trip to UNLV on Nov. 24.
